Energy harvested roadside IEEE 802.15.4 wireless sensor networks for IoT applications

Abstract

With the increasing deployment of the Internet of Things (IoT) applications, the demand for energy efficiency (EE) and quality-of-service (QoS) guarantee is on the rise. This paper considers the typically contradicting requirements for EE and QoS provisioning in an integrated manner for an IEEE 802.15.4-based wireless sensor network (WSN). Specifically, we consider variable traffic conditions of IoT applications in the presence of an energy harvesting technique based on the movement of vehicles. To this end, we introduce an adaptive energy-efficient algorithm, referred to as ABSD, that adapts the medium access control (MAC) parameters of IEEE 802.15.4 sensor nodes in response to the queue occupancy level of sensor nodes and the offered traffic load levels. By adapting the transmission parameters, the ABSD algorithm minimizes the network contention level which could in turn improve the EE as well as the network throughput. The ABSD algorithm is further enhanced by integrating with an energy harvesting technique and a new MAC parameter known as the ‘energy backoff’. The enhanced algorithm referred to as EH-ABSD offers priority to different classes of traffic by improving the battery lifetime and QoS values under variable traffic load conditions. Numerical results confirm that our proposed algorithms achieve high EE and QoS values while extending the lifetime of sensor nodes for outdoor applications.