Design, Modeling, and Capacity Planning for Micro-solar Power Sensor Networks

Abstract

This paper describes a systematic approach to building micro-solar power subsystems for wireless sensor network nodes. Our approach composes models of the basic pieces -solar panels, regulators, energy storage elements, and application loads -to appropriately select and size the components. We demonstrate our approach in the context of a microclimate monitoring project through the design of the node, micro-solar subsystem, and network, which is deployed in a challenging, deep forest setting. We evaluate our deployment by analyzing the effects of the range of solar profiles experienced across the network.

Lifetime maximization for sensor networks with wireless energy transfer

“…The vertical axis is the probability of the WSN to be immortal, whose criterion follows Proposition 1. The line with circles, squares, and diamonds represents packet generation rate λ to be uniform randomly determined from [1,6], [1,11], and [5,15] per minute respectively. When the WSN consists of 5 sensor nodes with λ ∼ U (5, 15), the WSN can be immortal with probability about 0.9.…”

“…Generally, the batteries of sensor nodes are charged by the energy harvested from the ambient environment, such as solar [6], wind [7], and vibrations [8]. In [13], how to schedule the sensing time of sensor nodes to maximize the sensing utility of an energy harvesting WSN has been considered.…”

“…Remark 4: For the general cases where Condition (7) is not satisfied, one can solve the problem by combining the GBC algorithm with dynamic programming (6). Next, we generalize the result of star topology networks to tree topology networks.…”

“…Energy from the environment, such as solar [6], wind [7], and vibrations [8], can be harvested by sensor nodes to charge their batteries. Although such energy can be considered as infinite and environmental friendly, the harvesting of the ambient energy is normally unpredictable and uncontrollable [9].…”

A Survy of Multi-Source Energy Harvesting Systems

“…The design trade-offs for single-source energy harvesting systems have been extensively considered [1], [2]. To increase the availability of energy, and address the drawbacks of existing single-harvester systems, a number of reported works have proposed the simultaneous use of several energy harvesters [3]- [6].…”