Power control of control frames in IEEE 802.11 networks

Power control design is important in IEEE 802.11 wireless networks, because the equipment sometimes is powered by the battery. There has been some research into the power control in IEEE 802.11 wireless networks. In most cases, the nodes use the same transmitted power to transmit the RTS (request to send) control frames and CTS (clear to send) control frames. We propose a protocol for power control of control frames (PCCF) in IEEE 802.11 networks. In this PCCF protocol, the RTS transmitted power is based on the carrier sense threshold, the receiving threshold and the maximum transmitted power, and then the data transmitted power is calculated based on the SINR (signal to interference and noise ratio) threshold. Based on the RTS transmitted power and the data transmitted power, the CTS transmitted power is calculated. Simulation results show that compared to the IEEE 802.11 DCF protocol, the PCCF protocol increases the system throughput, and decreases the delay and energy consumption.