Compiler-directed communication energy optimizations for microsensor networks

Optimizing energy consumption of a wireless microsensor network is important not only because it is not possible (in some environments) to recharge batteries on nodes (due to environment- related issues), but also because software running on sensor nodes may consume a significant amount of energy. In broad terms, we can divide the energy expended during operation into two parts: computation energy and communication energy. To minimize the overall energy consumption, we need to minimize the energy spent in both computation and communication. While power-efficient customized wireless protocols, e.g. [8,9], are part of the big picture as far as minimizing communication energy is concerned, we can also employ application-level and compiler-level optimizations that target at reducing communication energy.