Traffic Models for Energy Harvesting Based Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Background: Energy consumption is an important parameter in wireless sensor networks since it affects the lifetime of sensor nodes. Methods: Battery powered wireless sensor networks cannot sustain for long hence impractical for real-time applications. With energy harvesting and relevant protocols, this issue of extending the lifetime of nodes has been solved largely. The performance can be enhanced further if proper traffic analysis and modeling are done as a proactive approach. Results: A proper understanding of the traffic dynamics provides a base for further network optimization and detection of anomalies within the network. Much of the reported work in energy harvesting based WSN till now, is to design the efficient protocols only, traffic analysis and modeling is the ignored parameter. In this paper traffic models appropriate for the energy harvesting based system have been analyzed and their performance is evaluated for a MAC protocol. Conclusion: Results show that Weibull distribution is the most useful model for traffic modeling in energy harvesting based wireless sensor networks.