Multi-Source Hybrid Energy Harvesting Wireless Sensor Network Framework for Addressing Energy Unpredictability Issues

Abstract

Energy harvesting wireless sensor network (EH-WSN) harvests energy from the environment to supply power to the sensor nodes which apparently enhances their lifetime. However, the unpredictable nature of the resources throws challenges to the sustainability of energy supply for the continuous network operation. This creates a gap between unstable energy harvesting rates & energy requirements of the nodes of the network. The state-of-the-art algorithms proposed so far to address this problem domain are not able to bridge the gap fully to standardize the framework. Hence there is considerable scope of research to create a trade-off between EH techniques and specially designed protocols for in EH-WSN. Current study evaluates the performance and efficiency of some futuristic techniques which incorporate advanced tools and algorithms. The study aims to identify the strength and weaknesses of the proposed techniques which can emerge specific research requirement in this field. Finally, we propose a research direction towards Multi-source Hybrid EH-WSN (MHEHWSN) which is able to maximize energy availability and functional efficiency. The scope of this study is to develop a notion of a framework which eliminates the limitations of very recent techniques of EH-WSN by including multiple energy resources to extract required energy even in presence of unpredictability. However, keeping in mind the ease of use and less complex structure Multi-source hybrid EH technique requires a careful design paradigm.