Providing network connectivity to remote, rural areas that lack a wired infrastructure is an important and ongoing concern in many parts of the world. Wireless technologies offer a cost-effective means of extending access beyond high-density urban installations; however, overcoming broadband range limitations to reach sparsely populated remote regions requires the creation of a wireless multi-hop network of interconnected nodes. Employing an always-on infrastructure of traditional access points is wasteful in lightly used networks, especially in scenarios that require only sporadic communications, since nodes that continuously consume power often sit idle for extended periods. As reported, according to the International Communications Union, half of the typical cost to operate a rural network is related to power consumption.

This paper details the architecture and test results of a group of research scientists’ efforts to address the energy consumption inefficiencies through the use of a dual network architecture they call dualWireless. Engineered to power up communications only as needed, the innovative design uses two parallel wireless multi-hop networks, relying on IEEE 802.11n for on-demand data communications and 802.15-4 for always-on control purposes. The authors appropriately and adequately differentiate their proposed solution from related prior work, discuss in detail the dualWireless architecture, and share the results of their laboratory and outdoor testbed installations. The data and conclusions presented support the claim that the dualWireless architecture can save energy in many low network utilization applications as long as the occupation time is under 40 percent. For scenarios that involve intermittent traffic and others that inherently exhibit long periods of inactivity, such as overnight hours, dualWireless may very well be a suitable solution for specific applications.