Sensor Networks under Regulatory Power Constraints

Power constraints are often motivated by the physical limitations of the transmitting device (battery power etc.). However, a different source of power constraints is the regulatory framework imposed by authorities such as the United States FCC. Specifically, if a frequency band is to be reused on a tight spatial schedule, then the interference created by each system must be constrained. For sensor networks, such constraints could become the bottleneck in the scenario where the number of sensors becomes very large. In this paper, we discuss the impact of this shift in perspective on the fundamental performance bounds