Microcontrollers

2ECDE65 – Internet of Things

Dr. Viranchi C. Pandya
Dr. Manisha Upadhyay
Typical Sensor Node
RISC and CISC Architecture
Reduced Instruction Set Complex Instruction Set
Computer (RISC) Computer (CISC)
Small, Simple, Fixed Size (95%) Instruction Set Complex, Variable Size, Multiple
Operations in a single
Instruction
Fixed size instructions are Pipelining Difficult to implement
divided in multiple stages, Fast pipelining because of variable
execution of instruction length instructions
possible
Operations are performed Load store architecture Operations are performed
mainly from register to register directly from memory
(Initially from Memory to
register)
Compiler friendly Compiler independency
More number of GPRs Microcode within instructions
for various operations
IoT Boards
How to select? https://www.nabto.com/best-iot-boards/

• Determine application's requirements −

• kinds of sensors and actuators
• memory and processing power
• communication protocols and
• operating environment (temperature, humidity, etc.).
• Consider the MCU architecture −
• Different types of MCU architectures, such as 8, 16, and 32-bit.
• Depending on project's complexity and the memory and power
• Consider the communication protocols −
• wireless, Bluetooth, cellular, or Zigbee protocols
• Look at the available MCUs and other parameters-
• Select it based on other parameters like availability, cost, size, resources etc
• well-established ecosystem of development tools and a strong community of developers
Arduino Uno (ATmega328)
Main Features of Arduino
8 bit RISC Architecture Brownout Detection: For stability against Power Fluctuations
1 MHz to 20 MHZ Clock Speed Power Savings Modes for energy savings
2 KB of RAM, 32 KB of Flash Memory Boot loader support
23 GPIO Pins 3.3 V or 5 V operating voltage support
10 Bits ADC with 8 Multiplexed channels 6 PWM Channels
3 Timers/Counters for various applications 32 General Purpose Registers

• A beginner-friendly board with basic sensor interfacing capabilities

ESP32 Architecture
ESP32 Features
Dual core processor Built in security features
Wireless connectivity through Wi-fi and Flash memory
Bluetooth
Power Down Modes Integrated Temperature and Humidity
sensors
General Purpose Input Output pins RTOS Support
UART Development support for Arduino IDE
and others
I2C, PWM, ADC, DAC Over the air (OTA) updates
MSP 430 Architecture
MSP 430 Features
Ultra low power consumption modes Watch dog timers
(Three power down modes)
Mixed signal operations with inbuilt Inbuilt temperature and voltage sensors
ADCs and DACs
UART, I2C, SPI and USB support RTC support
Timers, GPIO and PWM support Variable clock support from few KHz to
MHz for low power consumption modes
BASIC BOARDS
BASIC BOARDS
ADVANCED BOARDS
ADVANCED BOARDS
 Energy Sources and Power Management

Power is needed for

• Active sensor power
• Frequency and amount of data collection
• Wireless radio communication strength and power
• Microprocessor or microcontroller power
• Passive components
• Energy loss from leakage or power supply inefficiency
• Power reserve for actuators
 Energy sources and power management

Power Management methods:

• Reducing the clock rates of processors or microcontrollers
• Adjusting the sensing frequency and broadcast frequency
• Back-off strategies to reduce communication strength
• Various levels of sleep modes

Recent methods:
• Approximate computing
• Probabilistic design
 Multiple power consumption modes
• Not to run sensor node at full operation all the time
• If nothing to do, switch to power safe mode
• 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 : four different sleep modes
• Atmel ATMega: six different sleep modes
Energy consumption in sleep mode Examples

• 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
 Tradeoff active-sleep mode
• 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
TRADE-OFF - State change times and energy saving
 Switching between modes
• Switching between active and sleep mode for energy
saving
• Problem: Time and power consumption required to
reach higher modes is not negligible
• Switching only pays off if Esaved > Eoverhead
• Example:
Eoverhea
Event-triggered Esave
d d
wake up from
Pactive
sleep mode
• Scheduling problem Psleep
with uncertainty
t1 tevent time
tdown tup
Calculation of energy saving Esav
ed
Eoverh
ead

Pactive
• Eactive = Pactive(tevent − t1)
• Average power consumption Psleep
during switching = (Pactive + Psleep)/2 t1 tevent time
tdown tup
• Psleep is consumed until tevent

• Power consumed = τdown(Pactive + Psleep)/2 + (tevent − t1 − τdown)Psleep

Energy Saving

E =(t − t )P − [τ (P + P )/2 + (t − t − τ )P ].
saved event 1 active down active sleep event 1 down sleep

Energy for overheads E overhead = τ (P + P )/2

up active sleep

Switching only pays off if Esaved > Eoverhead

 Calculation of minimum time

Esaved > Eoverhead

(t − t )P − [τ (P + P )/2 + (t − t − τ )P ] > τ (P + P )/2

event 1 active down active sleep event 1 down sleep up active sleep

Simplifying ….in terms of (t − t )

event 1
 Dynamic Voltage Scaling
• Power adaptation by adapting the speed with which a
controller operates
• Task can be accomplished just in time
• Avoid unnecessary speed
• 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
 Example

• A processor can be scaled down

• 700 MHz at 1.65 V down to 200 MHz at 1.1 V
• Power consumption is reduced by a factor of

P → f V2
• Speed is reduced by a factor of
Data Aggregation and Processing

• Data aggregation involves the collection and combining of data from

multiple sources into a single dataset or summary.
• In the context of edge computing, data aggregation at the edge refers
to the process of collecting data from various devices or sensors
located at the edge of a network or system.
• Instead of transmitting all the raw data to a central data center, data
is first aggregated, compressed and analyzed locally.
• This reduces the volume of data that needs to be transmitted over
the network, saving bandwidth, reducing latency and overall energy
consumption can be reduced.
Communication Protocols and Sampling rate
• Choose communication protocols that are designed for low-power
operation, such as MQTT-SN (MQTT for Sensor Networks), CoAP
(Constrained Application Protocol), or LoRaWAN (Low Power Wide
Area Network). These protocols minimize the energy needed for
communication.
• Adjust the sampling rate of sensors based on the application's needs
and the environmental conditions. This prevents unnecessary sensor
readings and conserves energy.
Energy Harvesting in Nodes

• Energy harvesting techniques involve capturing and converting ambient energy

from the surrounding environment into electrical energy to power electronic
devices and sensor nodes.
• These techniques are particularly useful for extending the operational lifetime of
battery-powered devices and enabling the deployment of self-sustaining, low-
power devices in remote or inaccessible locations.
Solar Energy Harvesting Kinetic Energy Harvesting
Vibration Energy Harvesting Wind Energy Harvesting
Thermal Energy Harvesting Indoor light energy harvesting
RF Energy Harvesting Electromagnetic energy
Harvesting
More Techniques for Energy Management

• Predictive maintenance of nodes

• Firmware and software optimization
• Over-The-Air (OTA) updates of nodes
• Optimize routing algorithms
• Quality of Service management
• Battery management system