Sensor nodes in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are often expected to operate on batteries for a long period of time. Battery power-ef ciency is a critical factor dictating the lifetime of WSNs. In this paper, we compare two pulse-based modulations, namely pulse position modulation (PPM) and on-off keying (OOK), both of which are suitable for WSNs due to their low complexity transceivers. The comparison is based on a general model that integrates typical WSN transmission and reception modules

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... th realistic nonlinear battery models. We analyze and compare the battery poweref ciency of PPM and OOK using coherent detection, and with bit error rate (BER) and cutoff rate criteria. Our results reveal that in sparse WSNs, PPM is more battery power-ef cient. In dense WSNs, OOK outperforms PPM. In addition, the battery power-ef ciency of OOK increases as the required cutoff rate decreases.