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Review
. 2021 Jan 14;21(2):548.
doi: 10.3390/s21020548.

Energy-Aware System Design for Autonomous Wireless Sensor Nodes: A Comprehensive Review

Olfa Kanoun  1 , Sonia Bradai  1 , Sabrine Khriji  1 , Ghada Bouattour  1 , Dhouha El Houssaini  1 , Meriam Ben Ammar  1 , Slim Naifar  1 , Ayda Bouhamed  1 , Faouzi Derbel  2 , Christian Viehweger  1
Affiliations
Review

Energy-Aware System Design for Autonomous Wireless Sensor Nodes: A Comprehensive Review

Olfa Kanoun et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

Nowadays, wireless sensor networks are becoming increasingly important in several sectors including industry, transportation, environment and medicine. This trend is reinforced by the spread of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies in almost all sectors. Autonomous energy supply is thereby an essential aspect as it decides the flexible positioning and easy maintenance, which are decisive for the acceptance of this technology, its wide use and sustainability. Significant improvements made in the last years have shown interesting possibilities for realizing energy-aware wireless sensor nodes (WSNs) by designing manifold and highly efficient energy converters and reducing energy consumption of hardware, software and communication protocols. Using only a few of these techniques or focusing on only one aspect is not sufficient to realize practicable and market relevant solutions. This paper therefore provides a comprehensive review on system design for battery-free and energy-aware WSN, making use of ambient energy or wireless energy transmission. It addresses energy supply strategies and gives a deep insight in energy management methods as well as possibilities for energy saving on node and network level. The aim therefore is to provide deep insight into system design and increase awareness of suitable techniques for realizing battery-free and energy-aware wireless sensor nodes.

Keywords: compressive sensing; energy efficiency; energy harvesting; energy management; energy prediction; energy saving; hybrid energy harvesting; wake-up receiver; wireless energy transfer; wireless sensor networks.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Challenges for the supply of WSNs with energy harvesting.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Generalized energy supply strategies of wireless sensor nodes based on energy harvesting, hybrid energy harvesting and wireless energy transfer.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Overview of selected hybrid converters from multi-sources.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Selected examples of hybrid converters including: (a) photovoltaic/thermoelectric generator (see [41]); (b) triboelectric/thermoelectric generator (see [42]); (c) piezoelectric/electromagnetic generator (see [43]); and (d) photovoltaic/triboelectric generator (see [44]).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Possible coils positions: (a) ideal case; (b) big lift-off distance; (c) lateral misalignment; and (d) angular misalignment.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Operation states of a WSN with respect to energy.
Figure 7
Figure 7
General structure of energy management for (a) DC; and (b) AC sources.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Block diagram of a typical wireless sensor node with a WuRx.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Block diagram of WuRx.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Energy saving mechanisms in wireless sensor networks.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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