Energy harvesting effect on prolonging low-power lossy networks lifespan

Low-power lossy networks performance relies heavily on the wireless node battery status. Furthermore, Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Network routing protocol was not optimally designed with sustainable energy consumption in mind to suit these networks. Prolonging the lifespan of these networks is of utmost priority. This article introduces a solar energy harvesting module to power energy-constrained network devices and quantifies the effect of using harvested energy on prolonging their network lifetime when Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Network routing protocol is used. Simulation of the new developed module is conducted in three different scenarios using Contiki Cooja simulator sporting Zolertia Z1 motes. Furthermore, the harvested energy used was fed from a Cooja-based Simulation model of actual PV supercapacitor circuit design. All battery levels were set to 1% of their total capacity for all nodes in the network to speed up observing the energy harvesting effect. The performance evaluation results showed that the network with no-energy harvesting operated for time duration of 4:08:04 time units (i.e. hour:minute:second) with a dramatic decrease in connection between nodes in the network. However, the same network, when using the harvested energy to back up the battery operation, lasted for 6:40:01 in time units with improved connectivity, a total extended network lifetime of 2:31:97-time units. Furthermore, for the Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Network routing metrics, OF0 outperformed ETX in term of throughput, packet delivery ratio, energy consumption, and network connectivity. Results indicate that the developed harvested energy module fits perfectly for any Cooja-based simulation and mimics actual photovoltaic-based supercapacitor battery. It should also help researchers introduce and quantify accurately new energy consumption-based routing metrics for Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Network.