Enhanced use of RSSI-based wireless network nodes for power measurement purposes

Received signal strength indication (RSSI) is a measurement function nowadays widely available in many wireless communication devices. The use of RSSI for radio frequency power measurements is here discussed. In particular, a procedure is proposed for improving the use of RSSI for power measurement tasks. The aim is to show how this function, suitably designed for communication protocol tasks, can even be deployed for power measurement purposes. To this aim, a suitable testbed is arranged and a measurement campaign conducted by using IEEE 802.15.4 compliant wireless network nodes. Experimental results are finally presented proving the effectiveness of the proposed procedure.