Performance Analysis and Design: Power Saving Backoff Algorithm for IEEE 802.11 DCF

In this paper, we propose an approach to saving power by more aggressively using sleep mode. The sleep duration is estimated by measuring the on-line traffic information, i.e. slot utilization. A considerable amount of power can be saved by using the approach. Our approach does not use any additional signaling channel, nor does it need any overhead in the involved protocol. The algorithm is readily implementable, requiring minimum processing and memory resources.