Event driven duty cycling: an efficient power management scheme for a solar‐energy harvested road side unit

Abstract

In this study the authors deal with different issues resulting from the practical implementation of a self-powered road side unit (RSU). Here, the authors suggest that a RSU can harvest the energy needed for its work from the surrounding environment, especially the solar energy. Such a suggestion permits to install the RSUs in any place without considering the power supply availability and hence, extensive area is covered by the vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET) infrastructure. UBICOM IP2022 network processor is chosen to realise the proposed RSU. A comprehensive design steps are illustrated and the required values of the system elements, that is, the number of solar cell panels, the capacity of the battery cells, etc. are adjusted to fulfil the design purposes. In order to reduce the power utilisation of the recommended RSU and to lengthen the duration of their batteries, a new distributed power management scheme called event driven duty cycling was suggested and installed locally in the RSUs in order to decrease their power consumption and to extend the life time of their batteries. The suggested method was compared with other duty cycling methods and with other real world implementations to show its usefulness in building a green VANET infrastructure.

Engineering Tests to Evaluate the Feasibility of an Emerging Solar Pavement Technology for Public Roads and Highways

“…However as estimated by international technology roadmap for photovoltaic (ITRPV), when the module cost falls below 1 USD/Wp, overall installation cost will be significantly reduced [2] There have been several practical studies done on solar-powered roadside units such as road surveillance systems, traffic signal systems etc. [6][7][8][9]. Using infrastructure integrated PV (IIPV) to power roadway loads (road surveillance systems, traffic signal systems, roadside lights etc.)…”

Security Issues of Solar Energy Harvesting Road Side Unit (RSU)

“…At this point, the two PRNGs are ready to generate synchronized random numbers which will be used for different purposes such as generating the updated secret keys and the random number used in the challenge response procedure mentioned earlier. 4. In order to maintain the synchronization among them, VANET server and its associated RSUs perform periodic synchronization tests.…”

“…In order to overcome this restriction, it is required to establish a self powered RSUs. In our previous works [3][4][5], we suggest that RSUs can harvest the energy needed for its work from the surrounding environment, especially solar energy. Such suggestion permits to install RSUs in any place without considering the power supply availability and hence, extensive area is covered by the VANET infrastructure.…”

“…The same device can supports Ethernet, Bluetooth wireless technology, IEEE 802.11, and so on. The key to this approach is Software System on Chip (SOC) technology as shown in Figure(3) [4].…”

“…Using two parallel AA battery cells with voltage varies between 2.9V and 3.1V, which ensures that the voltage across the solar panel terminals remains close to optimal. To avoid problems such as decreased radio range caused by decreased battery voltage, we use a step up DC-DC converter to provide a constant 3V supply voltage to the battery which provides overcharge and undercharge protection for the batteries [4]. In order to validate the convenience of the security methods suggested in this paper, several practical tests were performed using an experimental network as shown in Fig.…”