Electrical power flow of typical wireless sensor node based on energy harvesting approach

Abstract

ABSTRACTEnergy consumption efficiency remains the most prominent design criterion for Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) nodes and Internet of Things (IoT) sensors technology nowadays. Detailed power consumption measurements of the wireless node are very important for the hardware designers during the system design process, by assisting them to choose a suitable power source and the power condition circuit. Also, it gives the software designers a full picture of the node behaviour at different modes. Therefore, the focal point of this paper is to present a comprehensive mathematical model for a wireless sensor node power flow and consumption powered by energy harvesting. A simple periodic (wake-up; take readings; transmit; sleep) algorithm is developed for the sake of wireless sensor nodes’ power flow calculation. An energy flow through each of the wireless sensor nodes’ components during active and sleep modes is presented. The outcomes revealed that the microcontroller MCU consumed the highest power of 0.66 mW in the proposed node, followed by the wireless transmitter 0.33 mW, and the sensor module 0.18 mW at the active mode. However, the sensor module consumed very high power, with a value of 0.18 mW compared to the other modules in the proposed sensor node during the sleep mode.