Zafar Jawed Khan, Satyanarayana Chanagala
In recent times, the lifetime of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) has garnered significant attention from researchers, leading to the development of various power-aware algorithms based on strategies such as time scheduling, delay constraints, data aggregation, and management of spare nodes. However, simulations have often shown discrepancies with practical deployments, primarily due to premature battery exhaustion caused by improper sampling intervals, environmental effects, and transmission power levels. This study adopts a practical approach to analyze the impact of different transmission power levels on the sensor node's lifetime, identifying an optimal transmission power level for data packets. The optimized power level results in an 18% improvement in sensor node lifetime, bridging the gap between simulation and practical deployment results.