Energy Conservation in MANET Using Power Saving Protocol BECA/AFECA

The recent years have seen a tremendous increase in the number of Wi-Fi enabled mobile devices sold to consumers. Devices such as high-end cell phones, PDAs, portable gaming devices, tablet PCs etc. all have wireless networking capabilities. By participating in mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) these devices may extend their capabilities, e.g., to reach the Internet when no Wi-Fi base stations are within range, or to communicate with each other over multiple hops when no other networking infrastructure is available. One problem with continuous participation in a MANET is energy consumption. All of the mentioned devices are battery powered and energy is a rare resource and it is made even more rare by the fact that the devices must be mobile, i.e., they must be small and can therefore not be fitted with large battery packs. To overcome this problem, different power saving protocols are needed that allow the devices to preserve as much energy as possible while to keep network connectivity.