Explicitly constrained generalised predictive control strategies for power management in ambulatory wireless sensor network systems

This paper develops an explicit generalised predictive control (GPC) strategy for a wireless sensor network (WSN) power control problem that addresses practical constraints typically posed by an ambulatory healthcare problem scenario. An explicit solution of the particular GPC problem that arises facilitates the implementation of traditional on-line optimisation control strategies on a commercial sensor node platform with limited computational performance. The problem is shown to reduce to the evaluation of a piecewise linear function that can offer good performance with existing Mote type devices. The control law is validated experimentally against a number of existing strategies using a scaled, fully IEEE 802.15.4 compliant, testbed that emulates a selection of realistic wireless healthcare scenarios.