FZepel: RF-level power consumption measurement (RF-PM) for Zigbee wireless sensor network-towards cross layer optimization

Energy consumption is one of the most crucial design issues in wireless sensor networks (WSN) and largely depends on energy-efficient communication protocols. In order to improve the lifetime of a WSN, the cross-layer optimization technique can potentially be used to jointly optimize the power consumption behavior between various layers of the protocol stack. In this paper we propose a Finite State Machine (FSM) based ZigBeepower model (FZepel) that can be used for cross-layer stack analysis. FZepel is a primitive execution-based power estimation method. To achieve the desired level of accuracy, we also present an RF-level power measurement (RF-PM) technique for Zigbee-based wireless sensor networks. Using a PICDEM and a CC2420 communication component, we show how to characterize the state-based machine model of the network coordinator using the RF-PM technique.