A Game-Theoretic Approach to Efficient Power Management in Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks pose numerous fundamental coordination problems. For example, in a number of application domains including homeland security, environmental monitoring, and surveillance for military operations, a network's ability to efficiently manage power consumption is extremely critical because direct user intervention after initial deployment is severely limited. In these settings, limited battery life gives rise to the basic coordination problem of maintaining coverage while maximizing the network's lifetime. In this paper, we propose a distributed scheme for efficient power management in sensor networks that is guaranteed to identify suboptimal topologies in an online fashion. Our scheme is based on a general (game-theoretic) mathematical structure that induces a natural mapping between the informational layer and the physical layer. We provide sufficient conditions for the convergence of the algorithm to a pure Nash equilibrium and characterize the performance of the algorithm in terms of coverage. We also present encouraging performance results on a MicaZ testbed as well as on large-scale topologies (obtained via simulation).

[1]  Anthony Man-Cho So,et al.  On Solving Coverage Problems in a Wireless Sensor Network Using Voronoi Diagrams , 2005, WINE.

[2]  Robert Tappan Morris,et al.  Span: An Energy-Efficient Coordination Algorithm for Topology Maintenance in Ad Hoc Wireless Networks , 2002, Wirel. Networks.

[3]  J. Robinson AN ITERATIVE METHOD OF SOLVING A GAME , 1951, Classics in Game Theory.

[4]  Weili Wu,et al.  Energy-efficient target coverage in wireless sensor networks , 2005, Proceedings IEEE 24th Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies..

[5]  Deborah Estrin,et al.  Networking issues in wireless sensor networks , 2003, J. Parallel Distributed Comput..

[6]  Jeff S. Shamma,et al.  Dynamic fictitious play, dynamic gradient play, and distributed convergence to Nash equilibria , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control.

[7]  D. Fudenberg,et al.  The Theory of Learning in Games , 1998 .

[8]  Miodrag Potkonjak,et al.  Power efficient organization of wireless sensor networks , 2001, ICC 2001. IEEE International Conference on Communications. Conference Record (Cat. No.01CH37240).

[9]  Jennifer C. Hou,et al.  Maintaining Sensing Coverage and Connectivity in Large Sensor Networks , 2005, Ad Hoc Sens. Wirel. Networks.

[10]  H. Young,et al.  Individual Strategy and Social Structure: An Evolutionary Theory of Institutions , 1999 .

[11]  Di Tian,et al.  A node scheduling scheme for energy conservation in large wireless sensor networks , 2003, Wirel. Commun. Mob. Comput..

[12]  Bruce H. Krogh,et al.  Energy-efficient surveillance system using wireless sensor networks , 2004, MobiSys '04.

[13]  L. Shapley,et al.  Fictitious Play Property for Games with Identical Interests , 1996 .

[14]  Guoliang Xing,et al.  Integrated coverage and connectivity configuration for energy conservation in sensor networks , 2005, TOSN.

[15]  Ding-Zhu Du,et al.  Improving Wireless Sensor Network Lifetime through Power Aware Organization , 2005, Wirel. Networks.

[16]  Alfredo Garcia,et al.  Fictitious play for finding system optimal routings in dynamic traffic networks 1 This work was supp , 2000 .

[17]  Tian He,et al.  Differentiated surveillance for sensor networks , 2003, SenSys '03.

[18]  Ying Zhang,et al.  Minimum power configuration in wireless sensor networks , 2005, MobiHoc '05.

[19]  L. Shapley SOME TOPICS IN TWO-PERSON GAMES , 1963 .

[20]  Robert L. Smith,et al.  A Fictitious Play Approach to Large-Scale Optimization , 2005, Oper. Res..

[21]  Andrew T. Campbell,et al.  Proceedings of the 6th ACM international symposium on Mobile ad hoc networking and computing , 2005 .

[22]  Jason R. Marden,et al.  Joint Strategy Fictitious Play with Inertia for Potential Games , 2005, Proceedings of the 44th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control.

[23]  Brighten Godfrey,et al.  Naps: scalable, robust topology management in wireless ad hoc networks , 2004, IPSN.