A Framework for Wireless Ad hoc Networks with a Quasi-Guaranteed Minimum System Lifetime

In previous work, we thoroughly studied the intricate problem of energy conservation in wireless ad hoc networks. Consequently, we proposed a novel framework, namely Quasi-Guaranteed System Lifetime (Q-GSL), which allows the admission of flows without jeopardizing the limited energy of the wireless stations. A noteworthy feature of Q-GSL is that it provides a means for contention mitigation and load balancing. The upper bound on the packet rate is computed in the absence of the energy overheads associated with routing, contention resolution, channel sensing, etc. The results reported herein augment our previous conclusions about the usefulness of the proposed framework. We show that load balancing is achieved amongst the routes and the nodes in the wireless ad hoc network without violating any of the energy constraints, and while adhering to a pre-computed deterministic minimum system lifetime.