A power-aware middleware for mobile ad-hoc networks

Abstract

Energy management constitutes a crucial issue for battery-powered mobiles devices, such as Pocket PCs. This article presents a power-aware middleware for Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANets). The energy management mechanisms were integrated in the middleware during its design. Each middleware's functionality (communication, discovery, security and data sharing) is adaptable to the energy level. When the energy level decreases, the middleware services are progressively degraded in order to decrease the energy consumption. The management of adaptations is guided by a policy that defines battery level thresholds at which the adaptations are triggered. In addition, applications using middleware are also designed to adapt their behaviour according to the energy level. The first evaluations are encouraging: the energy consumption is significantly decreased.