Characterization and Performance Evaluation of ESP32 for Real-time Synchronized Sensor Networks

Abstract

In recent years, technological advancement characterized by heightened connectivity and digitization has revolutionized our interaction with the world. This evolution has been exemplified by the emergence of the Internet of Things, which has introduced a new era of digitization and automation, primarily propelled by devices based on the ESP32 microcontroller. This study seeks to comprehensively evaluate and characterize a fully functional sensor network built upon the ESP32 microcontroller. The evaluation covers three key aspects: network performance, the ESP32’s built-in ADC peripheral, and the data acquisition system. The ESP32 device has demonstrated its capability to consistently sample sensors at a high rate with remarkable stability. The ESP32’s built-in ADC exhibited undesirable behavior for analog devices, attributed to noise and non-linearity. As a result, in applications requiring precision with analog sensors, the utilization of a cost-effective external ADC, as employed in this study, is recommended. Finally, during the network analysis of the sensor network, no issues were identified. The data acquisition system exhibited no bottlenecks, and packet losses remained minimal, regardless of the sampling period.