Exploring system parameters for viability of energy harvesting technologies

Abstract

Powering wireless sensors with harvested energies is coming of age due to the sources providing higher power densities and the electronics performing efficient energy conversion. However, to ensure energy harvesting as a viable option, several system parameters have to be tuned. In this work, we identify these key system parameters and show that by suitably tuning them, one can drive wireless sensor networks (WSNs) with harvested energies. Some of the parameters include system's operating voltage & frequency, transceiver's Automatic Gain Control (AGC) block fine tuning, clear channel assessment and finally capacity values of energy storage buffers. Our measurements show that there are several possibilities to save energy by trading one system feature for another.