Pitfalls in Measuring Ultra Low Power Energy Harvesting Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Applications and evaluations in the area of ultra-low power energy harvesting Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) verge toward utilizing state-of-the-art hardware with extremely low power consumption. For the evaluation of these networks, real-world deployments are a common approach where special performance logging hardware is often used in conjunction with the sensor nodes. This hardware needs to be kept simple and cost-effective to allow for scalability. At the same time, it needs to be ensured that the measurement hardware does not interfere with the performance of the sensor node, thereby distorting the evaluation results. Herein lies an especially prominent challenge with ultra-low power sensor nodes. We outline some pitfalls that should be considered when designing or selecting this hardware.