Transmission Power and Effects on Energy Consumption and Performance in MANET

This paper explores the effect that transmission power has on the performance of a Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET). The goal of this research is to determine if the lifetime of the network can be prolongated by using less energy and thus, resulting in a more energy efficient ‘greener’ architecture. A total of 72 unique simulations are conducted of various configurations covering a large variety of possible scenarios: we examined configurations with a different number of nodes, number of traffic flows, mobility model, transmission power and geographical areas. Results show that there is an optimal transmission power, which enhances greater network performance: moreover, this optimal transmission setting makes the network more energy efficient in terms of depletion of the finite energy sources of the nodes. Our overall findings also confirm that higher transmission power results in less energy consumption.