A Bayesian Game of Multisource Energy Harvesting for Batteryless IoT Devices

In this paper, we use game theory to analyze the operations of energy harvesting in the context of multiple sources powering an IoT device. Such terminals are often heavily constrained in terms of energy provision, and they solely rely on harvesting procedures, which do not guarantee reliability at all times. We specifically consider a batteryless device that is requested to send periodic updates and, for increased dependability, exploits two different energy sources. The controllers of these sources employ a game theoretic distributed management that is simpler, and also more energy efficient, since no energy is wasted for coordination. To evaluate the performance, we frame the resulting interaction as a Bayesian game, for which we derive the Nash equilibria and the Price of Anarchy. These insights are discussed from a quantitative standpoint, giving numerical assessments of the resulting system efficiency.