The 802.11n Wi-Fi standard can be made 75 per cent more energy-efficient if combined with frame aggregation techniques, according to new research.
Following a detailed study, researchers from Greece were able to confirm that active A-MPDU aggregation had a significant effect on the energy consumption of devices utilising Wi-Fi.
According to theregister.co.uk, this discovery could be in crucial as the amount of wireless devices in use across the globe skyrockets.
It has reportedly been suggested that these devices are responsible for ten times the energy usage of data centres. What’s more, it has been predicted that the wireless cloud will require more than four times the electricity in 2015 than it did in 2012.
With ‘The Internet of Things’ supposedly just around the corner, this could have spelled havoc for global emissions caused by the wireless internet.
The 802.11n Wi-Fi standard does include plenty of power saving modes compared to its predecessors, but these all focus on sleep and idle modes. Initiatives to reduce Wi-Fi energy consumption whilst a device is in use are few and far between.
“Our detailed findings can act as a benchmark for researchers pursuing energy efficient operation of wireless protocols,” the researchers concluded in a statement for techweekeurope.co.uk.
