System and method for reducing power consumption in a wireless communications network

[0001] This invention relates generally to the field of wireless communications, and more particularly to power efficient multi-hop data transmission in wireless communications networks.

[0002] In an ad hoc wireless network, transceivers or nodes are arranged to communicate with each other without any network infrastructure or centralized administration. The arrangement can be static or dynamic, or combinations thereof. The nodes can be cellular telephones, portable computing devices, or special purpose devices such as sensors. The nodes in the network establish routing among themselves to form their own network. Due to a limited transmission range of the transceivers, messages from a source node may have to pass through one or more intermediate routing nodes before reaching a destination node.

[0003] In many ad hoc wireless networks, most, if not all of the nodes are battery powered. Therefore, minimizing power consumption is a primary concern. Some techniques for reducing power decrease transcoder complexities, use low power circuits and low signaling-cost routing protocols. Other techniques attempt to exploit the network topology to reduce power.

[0004] Heinzelman et al., in Energy-efficient Communication Protocol for Wireless Micro-sensor Networks, Proc. of the IEEE Hawaii Int. Conf. on System Sciences, pp. 3005-3014, January, 2000, describe communication protocols for power reduction in a wireless network. They describe a clustering based protocol that utilizes randomized rotation of local cluster heads to evenly distribute the power load among the nodes in the network. They also indicate that when the distance between two nodes is short, direct transmission is more efficient than multiple hop transmission.

[0005] Chang et al, in Energy Conserving Routing in Wireless Ad-hoc Networks, Proc. of IEEE INFOCOM 2000, March, 2000, describe methods for selecting routes and corresponding power levels in a static wireless network so that power consumption is reduced.

[0006] Catovic et al, in A new approach to minimum energy routing for next generation multi-hop wireless networks, Journal of Communications and Networks, Special Issue on Evolving from 3G deployment to 4G definition, December 2002, describe a technique for transmitting data over two different channels at different power levels. A rake receiver is used to reconstruct the original data by combining the two received signals.

[0007] Chen et al., Energy Efficient System Design with Optimum Transmission Range for Wireless Ad-hoc Networks, Proc of IEEE Int. Conf. on Communications, ICC'02, pp. 945-952, May, 2002, determine optimum transmission range and hop distances in wireless ad-hoc networks.

[0008] The prior art has not addressed the problem of bit error propagation through the multi-hop paths. To eliminate error propagation, the transmit signal power levels must be increased on multi-hop paths. As a result, overall power consumption in the network increases. On the other hand, at each intermediate node, a received signal can be decoded and re-encoded, and then forwarded to the destination or to the next intermediate node. This can prevent error propagation, at the cost of increasing power consumption due to complexities of the transcoding process.

[0009] Most important, deciding whether to simply amplify and transmit the data or to regenerate the data depends on the position of the intermediate node relative to the source and destination nodes, and the level of power loss. Therefore, there is a need for a system and method that can reduce power consumption in a wireless ad hoc network.

[0010] The system and method according to the invention reduces power consumption in a multi-hop wireless communications network. At a source node, a first power requirement for relaying a signal to a destination node through an intermediate node using an amplification mode is determined. A second power requirement for relaying the signal the destination node through the intermediate node using a regeneration mode is also determined at the source node. A relay request message is transmitted to the intermediate node, the relay request message including the first and second power requirements.

[0011] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a wireless communications network according to the invention;

[0012] FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of a method for reducing power consumption in a multi-hop wireless communications network according to the invention;

[0013] FIG. 3A is a flow diagram of relay mode operation according to the invention;

[0014] FIG. 3B is a flow diagram of regeneration mode operation according to the invention; and

[0015] FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a wireless node according to the invention.

[0016] System Structure

[0017] FIG. 1 shows a wireless communications network 100 according to the invention. The network 100 includes a source node 110, and an intermediate node 130 and a destination node 120. The output of the source node is a signal 111. The signal includes a relay-request 112, a message 113, a relay mode power requirement 114, and a regeneration mode power requirement 115.

[0018] A power savings is expressed as a difference between the amount of power required to transmit the message over the indirect path 116 and the direct path 117.

[0019] System Operation

[0020] FIG. 2 shows a method 200 for reducing power consumption in a multi-hop wireless communications network 100 according to the invention. The signal 111 is received 210 by the intermediate node 130 from the source node 110.

[0021] During step 220, the intermediate node 130 decides whether to accept or deny the request 112 from the source node 110 to relay the message 113 to the destination node 120. Depending on the decision of step 220, the intermediate node sends an indication 221 of acceptance (Ack) or rejection (Nack) of the request. If the request is denied or not accepted within a predetermined amount of time, then the source node 110 can seek another node to act as the intermediate node, or the source node can attempt to send the message 113 directly to the destination node 120.

[0022] If the indication 221 is an Ack, the intermediate node selects 230 a mode for relaying the message 113 to the destination node 120. The selected mode can be either a regeneration mode or a relay mode, both of which are discussed in detail below.

[0023] FIG. 3A shows the steps for the relay mode. Here, the intermediate node 130 amplifies 310 the signal 111 from the source node 110, and retransmits 320 the amplified signal 321 to the destination node 120.

[0024] FIG. 3B shows the steps for regeneration mode. In this mode, the signal received at the intermediate node 130 is first demodulated 330 then decoded 340. The decoding 340 process corrects any bit errors that occurred. The decoded data 341 are then encoded 350, amplified 360 and transmitted 370 to the destination node 120.

[0025] Regeneration Mode

[0026] The source node A 110 determines the amount of power required to transmit the signal 111 directly to destination node B 120 by Equation (1) as:

[0027] where the required power _re meets a bit error rate requirement Pr_e, a value is a path-loss exponent, and a value x_ab, is a shadowing loss, in decibels, on the path from the source node A 110 to the destination node B 120. The value _re depends on what type of radio modulation is being used, e.g., PAM, QPSK, QAM.

[0028] The source node A 110 determines the power savings that could be obtained if intermediate node C 130 acts as a regenerator relay. The power savings is the difference between power used on the relay path ACB 116 and the power used on the direct path AB 117. To find this difference, the source node A 110 determines the power to transmit to intermediate node C 120 and the power used at the intermediate node to transmit to the destination node B 120. These two powers, denoted by (_te^A, _te^C), depend on distances (d^ac, d^cb) and the required bit error rate (BER) Pr_e. The power reduction due to regeneration is then determined by Equation (2) as:

[0029] Equation 2 gives the optimum power saving, neglecting shadowing losses, in the network 100 where the intermediate node acts as a regenerator and relays the signal the source node 110 to the destination node 120.

[0030] FIG. 3A shows the regenerator relay method with the computed transmit powers at the source node A 110 and intermediate node C 130 (_te^A, _te^C). Depending on the distances between the nodes. The power reduction _regen can be positive or negative.

[0031] If the power reduction _regen is positive, then the source node does not send a relay request to the intermediate node. If the power reduction _regen is negative, then the source node sends the relay request to the intermediate node.

[0032] Relay Mode

[0033] In relay mode, the intermediate node 130 forwards the message 113 to the destination node B 120 without correcting any errors that occurred in the transmission from the source node A 110 to the intermediate node C 120. The transmit powers at the source and intermediate nodes are (_te^A, _te^C) and the optimal bit error rates at the intermediate node and the destination node are (*Pr_e^ac, *Pr_e^cb). Because relaying allows bit errors to propagate from intermediate node to destination node, Equation (3)

[0034] is satisfied by $\begin{array}{c}\ln \left(\frac{d_{\mathrm{ac}}^{}{10}^{x_{\mathrm{ac}}/10}}{d_{\mathrm{cb}}^{}{10}^{x_{\mathrm{cb}}/10}}\right)=\ln \left(Q^{-1}\left(\frac{{\log }_{2}M}{\left(1-1/M\right)}\left({\mathrm{Pr}}_e^{\mathrm{ab}}-{\mathrm{Pr}}_e^{\mathrm{ac}}\right)\right)\right)+\\ ({{\mathrm{erf}}^{-1}\left(1-\frac{2{\log }_{2}M}{\left(1-1/M\right)}\left({\mathrm{Pr}}_e^{\mathrm{ab}}-{\mathrm{Pr}}_e^{\mathrm{ac}}\right)\right)}^2-\\ {\left({\mathrm{erf}}^{-1}\left(1-\frac{2{\log }_{2}M}{4\left(1-1/M\right)}{\mathrm{Pr}}_e^{\mathrm{ac}}\right)\right)}^2-\\ \ln \left(Q^{-1}\left(\frac{2{\log }_{2}M}{4\left(1-1/M\right)}{\mathrm{Pr}}_e^{\mathrm{ac}}\right)\right)\end{array}$

[0035] and *Pr_e^cb is found by *Pr_e^cbPr_e*Pr_e^ac.

[0036] From these optimal bit error rates, the optimal transmit powers (_te^A, _te^C) are determined. After the values (_te^A, _te^C) are known, the source node A 110 can then determine the power savings according to

[0037] The above described method finds (*Pr_e^ac, *Pr_e^cb, _te^A, _te^C) for any rectangular M-ary modulation scheme, however, the same analysis technique applies to other modulation schemes as well.

[0038] The value _relay is always less than the value _regen because, for a fixed Pr_e, the relay method requires additional power.

[0039] However, this additional power is only a fraction of a decibel. Therefore, the intermediate node 130 can determine whether to select relay mode or regenerator mode based on local criteria, such as processing load. The intermediate node 130 can then perform relaying and the overall system still achieves power reduction.

[0040] Node Structure

[0041] FIG. 4 shows a node 400 according to the invention. Each node includes an antenna 405 connected to a transmit block 410 and a receive block 450. The transmit and receive blocks are coupled to each other by switches 491-492. In addition, the node includes a processor 480 and a mode selector 490.

[0042] The transmit block 410 includes an encoder 440, a transmitter 420, and an amplifier 430. The receive block includes a receiver 460 and a decoder 470.

[0043] Node Operation

[0044] The transmit block 410 encodes, modulates, and amplifies the signal 111. The signal can originate locally or from another node.

[0045] The receive block chain 450 demodulates and decodes a received signal 411. The output of the receiver block 460 is a bitstream including the message 113, that is directed to the processor 480, and to either the transmitter for relaying when the switch 491 is in the 0 (off) position, or to the decoder 470 when the switch 491 is in the 1 (on) position. The decoder 470 decodes the bit stream 461 and corrects bit errors.

[0046] After decoding, the message 113 is reconstructed and is either transmitted by the transmit chain 410 if the switch 492 is in the 0 position for regeneration mode, or is passed to the local node 495 if the processing unit 480 determines the message 113 is intended for the local node.

[0047] The processor 480 continuously processes received messages and determines if the messages are relay control messages, relay data, or data destined for the local node. The processor also determines the setting of the switches 491-492. If the data are relay data, the decision of what mode, e.g., regenerator or relay, to forward the data is made by the mode selector 490. The decision is made as a function of the savings, and the switches 491 and 492 are set accordingly.

[0048] Although the invention has been described by way of examples of preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that various other adaptations and modifications may be made within the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, it is the object of the appended claims to cover all such variations and modifications as come within the true spirit and scope of the invention.