AOC-MAC: A Novel MAC-Layer Adaptive Operation Cycle Solution for Energy-Awareness in Wireless Mesh Networks

In wireless mesh networks, mesh devices often have limited power budgets while performing complex and energy-consuming application tasks such as multimedia deliveries. In this context, reducing energy consumption is one of the main research concerns, yet most of the existing multimedia delivery schemes proposed for wireless mesh networks do not consider this factor. This paper presents AOC-MAC, an adaptive MAC-layer operation cycle management solution for high-quality multimedia transmissions over wireless mesh networks. AOC-MAC saves energy at mesh network devices by managing their sleep-periods in an innovative way while also maintaining high multimedia quality levels. AOC-MAC is deployed in conjunction with E-Mesh, an energy-aware routing mechanism, as part of an energy-aware cross-layer scheme. Network Simulator 3 (NS-3) simulation results show the balancing effect of obtaining energy savings and maintaining good multimedia quality levels by using AOC-MAC in comparison with the case when the standard IEEE 802.11s protocol is deployed.