Classifying WSNs based on their energy management and communication synchronization mechanisms

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are increasingly deployed across diverse applications, from environmental monitoring and healthcare to military and commercial use. These networks face significant energy challenges, as battery constraints often limit operational longevity and complicate maintenance of the WSN nodes, especially in remote areas. While techniques like duty cycling can extend battery life, they do not eliminate the need for battery replacement or mitigate the environmental impact of battery use. As a promising alternative, energy harvesting (EH) allows nodes to gather power from their surroundings, enabling WSNs to operate autonomously with reduced maintenance requirements. However, EH presents new challenges due to the intermittent and unpredictable nature of energy harvesting, which creates asynchrony in communication and complicates intra-WSN data transfer. This study proposes a two-dimensional classification framework to evaluate existing WSN approaches based on energy management and communication synchronization strategies.

Presented at: E2SDS 2024 - International Colloquium on Energy-Efficient and Sustainable Distributed Systems, Natal, Brazil & Online, November 26-27, 2024.