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Low Power Routing and Channel Allocation of Wireless Video Sensor Networks Using Wireless Link Utilization
Hyung-Won Kim and Amit Kachroo

This paper analyzes the physical relation between the power consumption and the link utilization of wireless video sensor networks. It then proposes a method of multi-channel allocation and routing for multi-hop wireless sensor networks where each node is a battery-powered video camera sensor. Battery powered video camera sensors are often used in a form of a wireless mesh network to cover a large area. We analyze the power consumption model for a wireless link in terms of the distance and its utilization ratio. We present a formula of routing and channel allocation using only active sensor nodes in a way that minimizes the overall power consumption while ensuring transmission of the target video data. We developed a fast heuristic algorithm, and implemented it in a wireless video sensor network simulator. It introduces a notion of aggressor and victims of shared channels to calculate utilization incrementally as the routing algorithm proceeds. Extensive simulation results are provided with wireless video sensor networks of various sizes, which show the performance advantage of the proposed algorithm.

Keywords: Wireless sensor network, mesh network routing, multiple channel allocation, video sensor network, link utilization, low power network.

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