Power Management for RF-Powered vs. Battery-Powered Devices

Abstract – The general goal of power management (PM) is to achieve optimal system performance while meeting power constraints. Minimizing the energy consumption is mostly not sufficient. Especially power management policies for battery-powered and RFpowered devices require a deep understanding of the supplies ’ electrical characteristics. Thus, battery-aware PM aims to efficiently utilize the battery by reducing average current and avoiding relatively long (ms-sec) intervals of high discharge. In turn, RF-powered devices are additionally sensitive to instantaneous power consumption. This paper gives an overview of battery-aware PM approaches and draws avenues how these algorithms can be adapted and/or extended for RF-powered devices. Simulation and experimental results are presented to show the effects of power management policies on system life time and performance. I