CAREER: Pulsar: A Cross-Layer Approach to Energy Conservation in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

在adhoc网络中支持通信的最大挑战之一是移动的节点的电池寿命有限。目前的Ad Hoc网络中的能量节约方法狭隘地集中在一个层上的优化，并且一些只关注该层中的特定机制。由于忽略了一个层内和其他层上的影响，许多方法变得无效，甚至可能增加能耗。这项研究在创新的Pulsar框架中集成了跨层优化，从而实现了网络范围内的节能通信。在节点层，功率控制（即，动态改变传输功率电平）减少了数据传输的能量消耗。此外，功率管理（即，将设备置于低功率休眠模式）减少了在通信中的空闲时段期间不必要地消耗的能量。在路由层，通过寻找能量最小的路由，最大限度地提高节点的数量在低功耗模式，并减少路由协议的开销，以减少能源消耗。在全局层，Pulsar使用拓扑控制来降低传输能耗和缓解网络中的竞争。这些技术中的每一种都可以为单个节点节省大量的能量，但是考虑到自组织网络中通信的协作性质，一个节点处的能量节省可能影响整个网络。Pulsar捕捉各层之间的关系，并使用智能MAC和路由协议以及分布式算法提供高能效通信，以管理高级网络目标。 此外，这项研究正在将新颖的无线网络项目纳入本科生和研究生课程。

One of the biggest challenges to supporting communication in ad hoc networks is the limited battery life of mobile nodes. Current approaches to energy conservation in ad hoc networks narrowly focus on optimizations at only one layer, and some only focus on a specific mechanism in that layer. By ignoring the impact within a layer and on other layers, many approaches become ineffective and may even increase energy consumption. This research integrates optimizations across layers in the innovative Pulsar framework, resulting in network-wide energy-efficient communication. At the node layer, power control (i.e., dynamically changing transmission power levels) reduces the energy consumption for data transmissions. Additionally, power management (i.e., placing the device in a low-power sleep mode) reduces the energy consumed unnecessarily during idle periods in communication. At the routing layer, energy consumption is reduced by finding minimum energy routes, maximizing the number of nodes in low-power mode and reducing the overhead of the routing protocol. At the global layer, Pulsar uses topology control to reduce transmission energy consumption and alleviate contention in the network. Each of these techniques can save a significant amount of energy for an individual node, but given the cooperative nature of communication in ad hoc networks, energy conservation at one node may impact the entire network. Pulsar captures the relationships between layers and provides energy-efficient communication using intelligent MAC and routing protocols and distributed algorithms to manage high-level network goals. Further, this research is bringing novel wireless networking projects into the undergraduate and graduate curriculum.