Battery discharge characteristics of wireless sensors in building applications

Sensor nodes in wireless networks often use batteries as their source of energy, but replacing or recharging exhausted batteries in a deployed network can be difficult and costly. Therefore, prolonging battery life becomes a principal objective in the design of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). There is little published data that quantitatively analyze a sensor node's lifetime under different operating conditions. This paper presents several experiments to quantify the impact of key wireless sensor network design and environmental parameters on battery performance. Our testbed consists of MicaZ motes, commercial alkaline batteries, and a suite of techniques for measuring battery performance. We evaluate known parameters, such as communication distance, working channel and operating power that play key roles in battery performance. Through extensive real battery discharge measurements, we expect our results to serve as a quantitative basis for future research in designing and implementing battery-efficient sensing applications and protocols.