Energy consumption and image quality in wireless video-surveillance networks

Wireless video-surveillance networks are gaining increasing popularity due to the number of applications they make possible to carry out. In this paper, we address the problem of designing a wireless video-surveillance network so as to optimize its performance. In particular, we investigate the possible trade-offs between energy consumption and image quality. We provide simulation results showing that video compression can be very beneficial in reducing data transmission costs, provided that the energy cost of video compression is low. Moreover, we discuss the impact of compression on image delay. Keywords— wireless sensor networks; image and video compression; low-power algorithms; wireless network architectures;