Silent networking for energy-constrained nodes

  • Authors:

  • Tao Zhang;Provin Gurung;Eric van den Berg;Sunil Madhani;Anish Muttreja

  • Affiliations:

  • Telcordia Technologies, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA and Princeton University, NJ, USA;Telcordia Technologies, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA and Princeton University, NJ, USA;Telcordia Technologies, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA and Princeton University, NJ, USA;Telcordia Technologies, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA and Princeton University, NJ, USA;Telcordia Technologies, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA and Princeton University, NJ, USA

  • Venue:
  • Computer Communications
  • Year:
  • 2006

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Abstract

This paper proposes Silent Networking - a new method to significantly increase the lifetimes of energy-constrained nodes, networks, and mobile user devices. With Silent Networking, each network element powers off some or all of its radio interfaces during their naturally occurring silent periods, i.e., time periods when it does not expect to originate, receive, or relay traffic through those interfaces even if these interfaces are powered on. Each node makes its own autonomous decisions on whether, when, and for how long to power down which of its network interfaces, i.e., without exchanging any explicit or implicit signaling messages with other nodes. Second, network nodes and user devices make such power-down decisions in a way that is transparent to the networking protocols and user applications so that existing and new networking protocols can be used without modifications to support networking as they are used today. Silent networking increases the network and user device lifetimes, adding to energy savings achieved from energy-efficient networking protocols and applications. We present results of laboratory experiments to show that the proposed Silent Networking approach can significantly increase the lifetime of energy-constrained networks and mobile user devices.