Design of Wireless Sensors for IoT with Energy Storage and Communication Channel Heterogeneity

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel architecture for autonomous wireless sensors that integrates energy storage, communication channel heterogeneity, and energy harvesting to optimize energy efficiency and enable self-sustaining IoT sensors.

Contribution

It introduces an original dual-transceiver and hybrid power source architecture with a methodology for power management considering spectrum and energy consumption.

Findings

Proposed architecture improves energy efficiency of AWS.

Identified key factors influencing sensor node design.

Demonstrated potential for autonomous, energy-harvesting sensors.

Abstract

Autonomous Wireless Sensors (AWSs) are at the core of every Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). Current AWS technology allows the development of many IoT-based applications, ranging from military to bioengineering and from industry to education. The energy optimization of AWSs depends mainly on: Structural, functional, and application specifications. The holistic design methodology addresses all the factors mentioned above. In this sense, we propose an original solution based on a novel architecture that duplicates the transceivers and also the power source using a hybrid storage system. By identifying the consumption needs of the transceivers, an appropriate methodology for sizing and controlling the power flow for the power source is proposed. The paper emphasizes the fusion between information, communication, and energy consumption of the AWS in terms of spectrum information through a set of transceiver testing scenarios, identifying the main factors that influence the sensor node design and their inter-dependencies. Optimization of the system considers all these factors obtaining an energy efficient AWS, paving the way towards autonomous sensors by adding an energy harvesting element to them.