Staying Alive: System Design for Self-Sufficient Sensor Networks
Nicola Bui
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Abstract
Self-sustainability for energy scavenging networks is a crucial step in modern sensor network developments. Most existing analyses are however tailored to a single transmitting node or are difficult to map into practical protocol designs. Here, we offer a comprehensive framework for self-sufficient sensor networks powered by renewable energy sources. To this extent, we decompose the problem in two nested optimization steps: in the inner one we characterize the optimal operating point of the network subject to a required energy consumption figure, while in the outer step, we provide optimal energy management policies to make the system self-sufficient, given the the statistical description of the energy source. Our framework permits to gauge the impact of key sensor network parameters, such as the battery size, the harvester size (e.g., solar panel), the information transmission rate and the nodes' duty cycle. In addition, the closed form solution of the inner optimization proble...
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