Energy Efficient Trade-Off between Communication and Sensing in Wireless Gas Sensor Node

A wireless sensor network is a distributed collection of resource constrained tiny nodes capable of operating with minimal user attendance. Communication circuit is normally the most power consuming part of sensor node. Depending on the application, the node may have on board various extra hardware components with even higher power consumption. These components can impose restrictions in terms of providing the same communication range without increasing power consumption. In this paper we investigate the energy efficient balance between the communication and sensing modes in a gas sensor node. First, we analyze how to secure the energy efficient sensing of environment using the developed framework. Then we establish the efficient transmission power rate for each sensing power level. Finally, the effective distances for the appropriate transmission rates are defined.