Tynan, RichardRichardTynanMuldoon, ConorConorMuldoonO'Hare, G. M. P. (Greg M. P.)G. M. P. (Greg M. P.)O'HareO'Grady, Michael J.Michael J.O'Grady2011-09-292011-09-292009 The A2011-03The Computer Journal1460-2067 (online)0010-4620 (print)http://hdl.handle.net/10197/3194One of the most important factors to be considered when developing an application for a wireless sensor network (WSN) is its power consumption. Intelligent power management (IPM) for a WSN is crucial in maximizing the operational longevity. An established regime for achieving this is through the opportunistic hibernation of redundant nodes. Redundancy, however, has various definitions within the field of WSNs and indeed multiple protocols, each operating using a different definition, coexist on the same node. In this paper, we advocate the use of an MAS as an appropriate mechanism by which different stake-holders, each desiring to hibernate a node in order to conserve power, can collaborate. The problem of node hibernation for the heterogeneous sensing coverage areas is introduced and the manner by which it can be solved using ADOPT, an algorithm for distributed constraint optimization, is described. We illustrate that the node hibernation strategy discussed here is more useful than the traditional stack-based approach and motivate our discussion using IPM as an exemplar.366307 bytesapplication/pdfenCoverageConnectivityHibernationIntelligent power managementDistributed constraint optimizationWireless sensor networks--Energy consumptionMultiagent systemsJournal Article54349050210.1093/comjnl/bxp109https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0/