Modeling and analysis of energy harvesting nodes in wireless sensor networks

A Markov based unified model for energy harvesting nodes in wireless sensor networks is proposed. Using the presented model, the probability of event loss due to energy run out as well as an analytical vulnerability metric, namely average time to energy run-out, are derived. The results provide insight into the performance of energy harvesting nodes in wireless sensor networks as well as design requirements for such nodes. The proposed vulnerability metric can be used in the various harvesting aware techniques at different protocol layers.