A Novel Strategy for Energy Optimal Designs of IoT and WSNs

Many IoT applications demand devices operating on battery, which restricts the useful life of the developed solution as most scenarios do not allow replacement of batteries. Given a target period of survivability of IoT devices, we must design devices and sub-systems meeting the estimated energy consumption rate so as meet target lifetime. Thus, for a given scenario, to meet demanding solutions offering optimal energy utilization, we propose an approach addressing energy consumption minimization right from design/development stage through deployment and finally concluding at operational level. The key parameters of design and operation relate to data acquisition, communication and security sub-systems, where security may not always be required. The approach is encouraged by the fact that about 50–60% energy used by networked devices is spent by communication system and about 30% on security/encryption mechanisms. Thus, any attempt at optimal use of energy can lead to significant increase in life of battery which is synonymous with node or system life. The framework based on the novel approach is being considered for smart buildings, smart metering and smart health systems, where deployment of nodes is challenging for reliable communication.