3,812 research outputs found
SolarStat: Modeling Photovoltaic Sources through Stochastic Markov Processes
In this paper, we present a methodology and a tool to derive simple but yet
accurate stochastic Markov processes for the description of the energy
scavenged by outdoor solar sources. In particular, we target photovoltaic
panels with small form factors, as those exploited by embedded communication
devices such as wireless sensor nodes or, concerning modern cellular system
technology, by small-cells. Our models are especially useful for the
theoretical investigation and the simulation of energetically self-sufficient
communication systems including these devices. The Markov models that we derive
in this paper are obtained from extensive solar radiation databases, that are
widely available online. Basically, from hourly radiance patterns, we derive
the corresponding amount of energy (current and voltage) that is accumulated
over time, and we finally use it to represent the scavenged energy in terms of
its relevant statistics. Toward this end, two clustering approaches for the raw
radiance data are described and the resulting Markov models are compared
against the empirical distributions. Our results indicate that Markov models
with just two states provide a rough characterization of the real data traces.
While these could be sufficiently accurate for certain applications, slightly
increasing the number of states to, e.g., eight, allows the representation of
the real energy inflow process with an excellent level of accuracy in terms of
first and second order statistics. Our tool has been developed using Matlab(TM)
and is available under the GPL license at[1].Comment: Submitted to IEEE EnergyCon 201
Energy Harvesting Wireless Communications: A Review of Recent Advances
This article summarizes recent contributions in the broad area of energy
harvesting wireless communications. In particular, we provide the current state
of the art for wireless networks composed of energy harvesting nodes, starting
from the information-theoretic performance limits to transmission scheduling
policies and resource allocation, medium access and networking issues. The
emerging related area of energy transfer for self-sustaining energy harvesting
wireless networks is considered in detail covering both energy cooperation
aspects and simultaneous energy and information transfer. Various potential
models with energy harvesting nodes at different network scales are reviewed as
well as models for energy consumption at the nodes.Comment: To appear in the IEEE Journal of Selected Areas in Communications
(Special Issue: Wireless Communications Powered by Energy Harvesting and
Wireless Energy Transfer
A critical analysis of research potential, challenges and future directives in industrial wireless sensor networks
In recent years, Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks (IWSNs) have emerged as an important research theme with applications spanning a wide range of industries including automation, monitoring, process control, feedback systems and automotive. Wide scope of IWSNs applications ranging from small production units, large oil and gas industries to nuclear fission control, enables a fast-paced research in this field. Though IWSNs offer advantages of low cost, flexibility, scalability, self-healing, easy deployment and reformation, yet they pose certain limitations on available potential and introduce challenges on multiple fronts due to their susceptibility to highly complex and uncertain industrial environments. In this paper a detailed discussion on design objectives, challenges and solutions, for IWSNs, are presented. A careful evaluation of industrial systems, deadlines and possible hazards in industrial atmosphere are discussed. The paper also presents a thorough review of the existing standards and industrial protocols and gives a critical evaluation of potential of these standards and protocols along with a detailed discussion on available hardware platforms, specific industrial energy harvesting techniques and their capabilities. The paper lists main service providers for IWSNs solutions and gives insight of future trends and research gaps in the field of IWSNs
EC-CENTRIC: An Energy- and Context-Centric Perspective on IoT Systems and Protocol Design
The radio transceiver of an IoT device is often where most of the energy is consumed. For this reason, most research so far has focused on low power circuit and energy efficient physical layer designs, with the goal of reducing the average energy per information bit required for communication. While these efforts are valuable per se, their actual effectiveness can be partially neutralized by ill-designed network, processing and resource management solutions, which can become a primary factor of performance degradation, in terms of throughput, responsiveness and energy efficiency. The objective of this paper is to describe an energy-centric and context-aware optimization framework that accounts for the energy impact of the fundamental functionalities of an IoT system and that proceeds along three main technical thrusts: 1) balancing signal-dependent processing techniques (compression and feature extraction) and communication tasks; 2) jointly designing channel access and routing protocols to maximize the network lifetime; 3) providing self-adaptability to different operating conditions through the adoption of suitable learning architectures and of flexible/reconfigurable algorithms and protocols. After discussing this framework, we present some preliminary results that validate the effectiveness of our proposed line of action, and show how the use of adaptive signal processing and channel access techniques allows an IoT network to dynamically tune lifetime for signal distortion, according to the requirements dictated by the application
Self-sustaining Ultra-wideband Positioning System for Event-driven Indoor Localization
Smart and unobtrusive mobile sensor nodes that accurately track their own
position have the potential to augment data collection with location-based
functions. To attain this vision of unobtrusiveness, the sensor nodes must have
a compact form factor and operate over long periods without battery recharging
or replacement. This paper presents a self-sustaining and accurate
ultra-wideband-based indoor location system with conservative infrastructure
overhead. An event-driven sensing approach allows for balancing the limited
energy harvested in indoor conditions with the power consumption of
ultra-wideband transceivers. The presented tag-centralized concept, which
combines heterogeneous system design with embedded processing, minimizes idle
consumption without sacrificing functionality. Despite modest infrastructure
requirements, high localization accuracy is achieved with error-correcting
double-sided two-way ranging and embedded optimal multilateration. Experimental
results demonstrate the benefits of the proposed system: the node achieves a
quiescent current of and operates at while performing
energy harvesting and motion detection. The energy consumption for position
updates, with an accuracy of (2D) in realistic non-line-of-sight
conditions, is . In an asset tracking case study within a
multi-room office space, the achieved accuracy level allows for identifying 36
different desk and storage locations with an accuracy of over . The
system`s long-time self-sustainability has been analyzed over in
multiple indoor lighting situations
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