Mitigating the impact of high interference levels on energy consumption in wireless sensor networks

An analysis of the impact of the presence of high levels of interference in wireless sensor networks in residential buildings is presented. Furthermore, this is accompanied by WLAN measurement data to provide a quantitative illustration of actual interference levels experienced and associated signal statistics. The analysis use the excess energy needed with a simple retransmission scheme to maintain a predefined packet error rate as a figure of merit. Based on the analysis results and the example measurement data, a strategy to mitigate the effect of interference utilising the offered figure of merit is proposed.