Battery Lifetime Modeling and Validation of Wireless Building Automation Devices in Thread

The need for energy efficiency in wireless communication is prevalent in all areas, but to an even greater extent in low-power and lossy networks that rely on resource-constrained devices. This paper seeks to address the problem of modeling the battery lifetime of a duty-cycled node, participating in a wireless sensor network that is typically used in smart home and building applications. Modeling in MATLAB and experimentation with prototype testing are employed to predict and validate the battery lifetime. Various scenarios including sleepy end devices in a wireless sensor network are modeled and validated. They range from variable wake-up frequency and packet payload transmission to increasing network contention with the addition of network load. A comprehensive analysis of the main factors contributing to wasteful energy usage is provided. It can be concluded that the model can estimate the battery lifetime under different testing scenarios with an error rate less than 5%.