The Operational States and Energy Utilization of the Arduino Nano and Arduino Micro in 5G Networks

The accelerated development of the Internet of Things (IoT) in Fifth-Generation (5G) networks has highlighted the importance of exploring energy efficiency during run-time. It is imperative that IoT devices need to be part of such complex networks and should implement sustainability.The article aims to experimentally investigate the energy differences between two popular microcontroller platforms, Arduino Nano and Arduino Micro, in 5G network characteristics.Measurement of power consumption with Arduino Nano and Arduino Micro connected to 5G antenna modules. It focused on three different states of operation: advert acquisition, transfer, and idle. All measurements were carried out with calibrated instruments in an experiment laboratory to ensure high repeatability and accuracy.The results showed that when performing similar computational and communication tasks, in a 5G environment Arduino Micro consumed about 8% less power compared to the one used for comparable operation, i.e. Arduino Nano. What differentiates power consumption may be the more advanced voltage control technology and low-power-optimized components, specifically from the Arduino Micro. On the other hand, we observed a decrease in power consumption for Arduino Nano when kept in standby mode which suggests a more complex and non-linear relationship between operational states and power usage.The results of the current study can effectively support selecting microcontroller platforms for 5G IoT application uses, if it requires working with a lot of data continuously and sending for saving, then Arduino Micro is quite useful for these cases. This makes the Arduino Nano a better fit for use cases where we have only temporary access to Wi-Fi or cell networks on mobile. This study significantly correlates to the current state of discussion on energy-efficient techniques in IoT devices for 5G networks.