Single node architecture

Goals of this chapter

• Survey the main components of the composition of a node
for a wireless sensor network
• Controller, radio modem, sensors, batteries
• Understand energy consumption aspects for these
components
• Putting into perspective different operational modes and what
different energy/power consumption means for protocol design

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Outline
• Sensor node architecture
• Energy supply and consumption

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Sensor node architecture
• Main components of a WSN node
• Controller
• Communication device(s)
• Sensors/actuators
• Memory
• Power supply

Memory

Communication Sensor(s)/
Controller
device actuator(s)

Power supply

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Ad hoc node architecture
• Core: essentially the same
• But: Much more additional equipment
• Hard disk, display, keyboard, voice interface, camera, …

• Essentially: a laptop-class device

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Controller
• Main options:
• Microcontroller – general purpose processor, optimized for
embedded applications, low power consumption
• DSPs – optimized for signal processing tasks, not suitable here
• FPGAs – may be good for testing
• ASICs – only when peak performance is needed, no flexibility

• Example microcontrollers
• Texas Instruments MSP430
• 16-bit RISC core, up to 4 MHz, versions with 2-10 kbytes RAM,
several DACs, RT clock, prices start at 0.49 US$
• Atmel ATMega
• 8-bit controller, larger memory than MSP430, slower

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Communication device
• Which transmission medium?
• Electromagnetic at radio frequencies? ✓
• Electromagnetic, light?
• Ultrasound?

• Radio transceivers transmit a bit- or byte stream as radio

wave
• Receive it, convert it back into bit-/byte stream

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Transceiver characteristics
• Capabilities • Radio performance
• Interface: bit, byte, packet level? • Modulation? (ASK, FSK, …?)
• Supported frequency range? • Noise figure? NF = SNRI/SNRO
• Typically, somewhere in 433 MHz • Gain? (signal amplification)
– 2.4 GHz, ISM band
• Receiver sensitivity? (minimum S to
• Multiple channels? achieve a given Eb/N0)
• Data rates? • Blocking performance (achieved
• Range? BER in presence of frequency-
offset interferer)
• Energy characteristics • Out of band emissions
• Power consumption to send/receive • Carrier sensing & RSSI
data? characteristics
• Time and energy consumption to • Frequency stability (e.g., towards
change between different states? temperature changes)
• Transmission power control? • Voltage range
• Power efficiency (which percentage
of consumed power is radiated?)

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Transceiver states
• Transceivers can be put into different operational states,
typically:
• Transmit
• Receive
• Idle – ready to receive, but not doing so
• Some functions in hardware can be switched off, reducing energy
consumption a little
• Sleep – significant parts of the transceiver are switched off
• Not able to immediately receive something
• Recovery time and startup energy to leave sleep state can be
significant

• Research issue: Wakeup receivers – can be woken via

radio when in sleep state (seeming contradiction!)

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Example radio transceivers
• Almost boundless variety available • Chipcon CC 2400
• Some examples • Implements 802.15.4
• 2.4 GHz, DSSS modem
• RFM TR1000 family
• 250 kbps
• 916 or 868 MHz
• Higher power consumption
• 400 kHz bandwidth
than above transceivers
• Up to 115,2 kbps
• Infineon TDA 525x family
• On/off keying or ASK
• E.g., 5250: 868 MHz
• Dynamically tuneable output
• ASK or FSK modulation
power
• RSSI, highly efficient power
• Maximum power about 1.4 mW
amplifier
• Low power consumption
• Intelligent power down,
• Chipcon CC1000 “self-polling” mechanism
• Range 300 to 1000 MHz, • Excellent blocking
programmable in 250 Hz steps performance
• FSK modulation
• Provides RSSI

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Example radio transceivers for ad hoc networks
• Ad hoc networks: Usually, higher data rates are required
• Typical: IEEE 802.11 b/g/a is considered
• Up to 54 MBit/s
• Relatively long distance (100s of meters possible, typical 10s of
meters at higher data rates)
• Works reasonably well (but certainly not perfect) in mobile
environments
• Problem: expensive equipment, quite power hungry

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Wakeup receivers
• Major energy problem: RECEIVING
• Idling and being ready to receive consumes considerable amounts
of power

• When to switch on a receiver is not clear

• Contention-based MAC protocols: Receiver is always on
• TDMA-based MAC protocols: Synchronization overhead, inflexible

• Desirable: Receiver that can (only) check for incoming

messages
• When signal detected, wake up main receiver for actual reception
• Ideally: Wakeup receiver can already process simple addresses
• Not clear whether they can be actually built, however

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Ultra-wideband communication
• Standard radio transceivers: Modulate a signal onto a
carrier wave
• Requires relatively small amount of bandwidth
• Alternative approach: Use a large bandwidth, do not
modulate, simply emit a “burst” of power
• Forms almost rectangular pulses
• Pulses are very short
• Information is encoded in the presence/absence of pulses
• Requires tight time synchronization of receiver
• Relatively short range (typically)
• Advantages
• Pretty resilient to multi-path propagation
• Very good ranging capabilities
• Good wall penetration

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Sensors as such
• Main categories
• Any energy radiated? Passive vs. active sensors
• Sense of direction? Omidirectional?

• Passive, omnidirectional
• Examples: light, thermometer, microphones, hygrometer, …
• Passive, narrow-beam
• Example: Camera
• Active sensors
• Example: Radar

• Important parameter: Area of coverage

• Which region is adequately covered by a given sensor?

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Outline
• Sensor node architecture
• Energy supply and consumption

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Energy supply of mobile/sensor nodes
• Goal: provide as much energy as possible at smallest
cost/volume/weight/recharge time/longevity
• In WSN, recharging may or may not be an option
• Options
• Primary batteries – not rechargeable
• Secondary batteries – rechargeable, only makes sense in
combination with some form of energy harvesting
• Requirements include
• Low self-discharge
• Long shelf live
• Capacity under load
• Efficient recharging at low current
• Good relaxation properties (seeming self-recharging)
• Voltage stability (to avoid DC-DC conversion)

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Battery examples
• Energy per volume (Joule per cubic centimeter):

Primary batteries
Chemistry Zinc-air Lithium Alkaline
Energy (J/cm3) 3780 2880 1200
Secondary batteries
Chemistry Lithium NiMHd NiCd
Energy (J/cm3) 1080 860 650

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Energy scavenging
• How to recharge a battery?
• A laptop: easy, plug into wall socket in the evening
• A sensor node? – Try to scavenge energy from environment
• Ambient energy sources
• Light ! solar cells – between 10 W/cm2 and 15 mW/cm2
• Temperature gradients – 80  W/cm2 @ 1 V from 5K difference
• Vibrations – between 0.1 and 10000  W/cm3
• Pressure variation (piezo-electric) – 330  W/cm2 from the heel of
a shoe
• Air/liquid flow
(MEMS gas turbines)

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Energy scavenging – overview

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Energy consumption
• A “back of the envelope” estimation

• Number of instructions
• Energy per instruction: 1 nJ
• Small battery (“smart dust”): 1 J = 1 Ws
• Corresponds: 109 instructions!

• Lifetime
• Or: Require a single day operational lifetime = 24¢60¢60 =86400 s
• 1 Ws / 86400s ¼ 11.5 W as max. sustained power consumption!

• Not feasible!

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Multiple power consumption modes
• Way out: Do not run sensor node at full operation all the
time
• If nothing to do, switch to power safe mode
• Question: When to throttle down? How to wake up again?

• Typical modes
• Controller: Active, idle, sleep
• Radio mode: Turn on/off transmitter/receiver, both

• Multiple modes possible, “deeper” sleep modes

• Strongly depends on hardware
• TI MSP 430, e.g.: four different sleep modes
• Atmel ATMega: six different modes

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Some energy consumption figures
• Microcontroller
• TI MSP 430 (@ 1 MHz, 3V):
• Fully operation 1.2 mW
• Deepest sleep mode 0.3 W – only woken up by external interrupts
(not even timer is running any more)
• Atmel ATMega
• Operational mode: 15 mW active, 6 mW idle
• Sleep mode: 75 W

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Switching between modes
• Simplest idea: Greedily switch to lower mode whenever
possible
• Problem: Time and power consumption required to reach
higher modes not negligible
• Introduces overhead
• Switching only pays off if Esaved > Eoverhead
• Example: Esaved Eoverhead
Event-triggered
wake up from Pactive
sleep mode
• Scheduling problem Psleep
with uncertainty
(exercise) t1 tevent time
down up

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 Alternative: Dynamic voltage scaling
• Switching modes complicated by uncertainty how long a
sleep time is available
• Alternative: Low supply voltage & clock
• Dynamic voltage scaling (DVS)
• Rationale:
• Power consumption P
depends on
• Clock frequency
• Square of supply voltage
• P / f V2
• Lower clock allows
lower supply voltage
• Easy to switch to higher clock
• But: execution takes longer
Memory power consumption
• Crucial part: FLASH memory
• Power for RAM almost negligible

• FLASH writing/erasing is expensive

• Example: FLASH on Mica motes
• Reading: ¼ 1.1 nAh per byte
• Writing: ¼ 83.3 nAh per byte

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Transmitter power/energy consumption for n bits
• Amplifier power: Pamp = amp + amp Ptx
• Ptx radiated power
• amp, amp constants depending on model
• Highest efficiency ( = Ptx / Pamp ) at maximum output power
• In addition: transmitter electronics needs power PtxElec
• Time to transmit n bits: n / (R ¢ R )
code
• R nomial data rate, R coding rate
code
• To leave sleep mode
• Time Tstart, average power P
start

! Etx = T P + n / (R ¢ R ) (PtxElec + amp + amp Ptx)

start start code

• Simplification: Modulation not considered

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Receiver power/energy consumption for n bits
• Receiver also has startup costs
• Time Tstart, average power P
start
• Time for n bits is the same n / (R ¢ R )
code
• Receiver electronics needs PrxElec
• Plus: energy to decode n bits EdecBits

! Erx = T P + n / (R ¢ R ) PrxElec + EdecBits ( R )

start start code

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Some transceiver numbers

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Comparison: GSM base station power consumption
Heat 602W Heat 1920W Heat 360W

• Overview
DC power RF power
AC power TRX TOC RF
3200W 480W
3802W 2400W 120W
PS -48V
TRXs ACE
84% Combining

Central Heat 800W

CE equipm.
BTS 800W Total Heat
3682W

AC Power Rack Com-

• Details
supply cabling
300W mon
220V -48V -48V
85% 99%
3802W 3232W 3200W Fans (No active cooling)
cooling
PAs consume 2400W 500W
dominant part of power
12 transceivers
(12*140W)/2400W=70%
200W
idle
140W 60W
Usable PA efficiency Converter

• (just to put things

40W/140W=28% 85%
-48V/+27V
119W Bias
Erlang
into perspective) Overall efficiency
(12*10W)/3802W=3.1%
efficiency 75%
DTX activity
9W Combiner Diplexer

TOC
47% 110W
PA 10W
15W
40W

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Controlling transceivers
• Similar to controller, low duty cycle is necessary
• Easy to do for transmitter – similar problem to controller: when is it
worthwhile to switch off
• Difficult for receiver: Not only time when to wake up not known, it
also depends on remote partners
! Dependence between MAC protocols and power consumption is
strong!

• Only limited applicability of techniques analogue to DVS

• Dynamic Modulation Scaling (DSM): Switch to modulation best
suited to communication – depends on channel gain
• Dynamic Coding Scaling – vary coding rate according to channel
gain
• Combinations

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