Modeling Energy Consumption and Lifetime of a Wireless Sensor Node Operating on a Contention-Based MAC Protocol

Sensor nodes are small and low-cost portable devices that are connected wirelessly to form a wireless sensor network. Sensor nodes are typically powered by a chemical battery source that has a load-dependent finite lifetime. Most applications require wireless sensor networks to operate reliably for an extended period of time beginning with their deployment. To ensure both the longevity of a wireless sensor network via power management techniques and development of a self-powered sensor node, it is important to understand a sensor node’s operational energy consumption. It is well understood that wireless sensor network lifetime has a strong functional dependence on sensor node lifetime. This paper presents the development of a stochastic model to capture the expected energy consumption of a schedule-driven sensor node per cycle of operation by utilizing renewal theory, random stopping criteria, and Wald’s inequality. The model captures the expected energy consumed due to generic operation of a schedule-driven sensor node when an external event occurs (i.e., node level activities) and energy consumed due to carrier sense multiple access/collision avoidance medium access control protocol (i.e., retransmission attempts, channel listening, and other network level activities). The stochastic energy model is used to compute the expected lifetime and cycle lifetime of the sensor node. This paper also computes the deterministic energy bounds corresponding to the minimum and maximum energy consumption of a sensor node per cycle of operation. Analytical and numerical model validations are performed and presented.