An Analysis of Design Parameters for Energy Management of Wireless Sensor Devices

Using a general model of a wireless sensor in a resource-scarce environment, we investigate in this paper how internal and external parameters affect utility. Three metrics are proposed to capture the application-specific nature of utility, and in an effective manner highlight the trade-offs encountered. We consider a simple energy management policy for the wireless sensor with two parameters: a value-of-information threshold and a buffering capacity. Employing the utility metrics, we examine how this policy may be tailored to different environments by tuning of its parameters. Furthermore, we conduct an in-depth study of the parameter sensitivity in an example environment, and show how such analyses may be used to inform sensor design. In conclusion, we show that even a simple policy will exhibit distinctly different modes of operation depending on parametrisation, and emphasise the importance of a sufficient understanding of the parameter space in which the system resides.