Node's Power Source Type Identification in Wireless Sensor Networks

Contemporary Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) nodes can use one of the three options for their power supply: the electricity grid, the batteries or the wide range of energy harvesting systems. The possibility of identification for power source type used on the WSN node provides valuable information on the node potential resources, that could be used e.g. for the improvement of the whole WSN lifetime. Additionally, the possibility of WSN node Power Source Type Identification (PSTID) allows unifying the node's software through implementing the methods for WSN node operation adaptation based on the information about identified power source type and allows the support of efficient WSN node power source changeability without node reprogramming. To the best of our knowledge, this article is the first one which focuses on the problem of WSN node PSTID and suggests the appropriate solution. The suggested method allows implementing efficient PSTID with minimum resource consumption while not requiring any hardware components added to the WSN node. The suggested method has been implemented and tested in practice using different WSN node platforms and power source options. The evaluation results are presented in the paper as well.