A Survey of Transmission Power Control in Wireless Sensor Networks

Firstly developed for military applications, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are currently deployed in a wide range of civil applications. The main drawback is the power constraint as it is impractical to change or recharge the battery during a sensor's lifetime. The operation which consumes most power is data communication. Transmission power adaptation for a particular transmitter-receiver pair based on several environmental conditions is an approach for power optimisation. Two main factors including distance and wireless link quality affect the transmission power required to reach the receiver.