Proposal and Assessment of Algorithms for Power Consumption Reduction in Wireless Networks with E-Ink Displays

Abstract

Heterogeneous battery powered devices in the new Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm enable low computer resource elements to wirelessly and seamlessly communicate with other components. However, battery performance is currently a key issue, influenced by multiple factors such as data transmission time and use of computational resources. There are some battery-saving solutions optimizing sleep periods and compressing transmitted data to reduce the power impact, but they are not optimized for state of the art display technologies such as E-Ink. This paper proposes algorithms involving time synchronization and compression techniques, adapted from well-known classic RLE and Huffman algorithms, and evaluated their performance in a scenario in which small E-Ink display devices are used to implement a low-power wireless transmission. A study of the selected algorithms leads to personalize different parameters for an optimal adaptation and the life-time of the battery is tested in order to detect battery improvements over the selected algorithms.