Sizing up the Batteries: Modelling of Energy-Harvesting Sensor Nodes in a Delay Tolerant Network

TL;DR

This paper models energy-harvesting sensor nodes using Markovian queues to determine the minimal battery capacity needed for reliable data exchange in delay-tolerant networks.

Contribution

It introduces a combined queue model approach to optimize battery sizing for energy-harvesting sensor nodes in delay-tolerant networks.

Findings

Derived formulas for battery capacity based on energy depletion and overflow probabilities.

Demonstrated the effectiveness of the model through simulations.

Provided guidelines for battery sizing in renewable energy sensor networks.

Abstract

For energy-harvesting sensor nodes, rechargeable batteries play a critical role in sensing and transmissions. By coupling two simple Markovian queue models in a delay-tolerant networking setting, we consider the problem of battery sizing for these sensor nodes to operate effectively: given the intended energy depletion and overflow probabilities, how to decide the minimal battery capacity that is required to ensure opportunistic data exchange despite the inherent intermittency of renewable energy generation.