Active Status Update Packet Drop Control in an Energy Harvesting Node

TL;DR

This paper proposes age-threshold based ON-OFF control schemes for energy harvesting sensor nodes to optimize information freshness while managing energy constraints, considering partial and full power down options.

Contribution

It introduces age-threshold policies for energy-efficient status updates in energy harvesting nodes with different battery sizes, addressing partial and full power down strategies.

Findings

Optimal age-threshold policies minimize information age.

Energy constraints are effectively managed with proposed schemes.

Performance varies with battery size and power down options.

Abstract

This paper considers an energy harvesting sensor node with battery size $B_{max}$ that recharges its battery through an incremental energy harvesting process and receives updates from a single information source in slotted time. The node actively decides to power down (OFF) or up (ON) the communication circuitry for a portion of its operation time in order to maintain energy efficiency. Update packets arriving in ON (OFF) periods are received (discarded). A deterministic energy cost per time is paid during ON periods. The power down decision can be in partial or full nature, yielding various options for deciding ON-OFF intervals. We develop age-threshold based power ON-OFF schemes to minimize age of information at the node subject to energy harvesting constraints with partial and full power down options for $B_{max}=1$ and $B_{max}=\infty$ cases.