Wake-on-a-Schedule: Energy-aware Communication in Wi-Fi Networks

Abstract

1 Abstract—Excessive energy consumption of mobile device Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11x) interface is limiting its operational time on batteries, and impacts total energy consumption of electronic devices. In recent years research community has invested great effort in better efficiency of energy consumption. However, there is still a space for improvement. Wi-Fi devices connected to the single AP (Access Point) compete for the medium during data exchange. However, due to the performance anomaly in 802.11 networks, a low data rate device will force all other devices connected to the AP to communicate at low rate, which will increase the total energy consumption of these devices. Wake-on-a-Schedule algorithm is proposed reducing the energy consumption of devices placed in the area with the weaker signal by scheduling the data packets for each client on the server side which will not allow clients to compete for the Wi-Fi medium. Through extensive measurements we show that our algorithm can save up to 60% of energy consumption on the client side.