Estimating the Lifetime of Wireless Sensor Network Nodes through the Use of Embedded Analytical Battery Models

The operation of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is subject to multiple constraints, among which one of the most critical is available energy. Sensor nodes are typically powered by electrochemical batteries. The stored energy in battery devices is easily influenced by the operating temperature and the discharge current values. Therefore, it becomes difficult to estimate their voltage/charge behavior over time, which are relevant variables for the implementation of energy-aware policies. Nowadays, there are hardware and/or software approaches that can provide information about the battery operating conditions. However, this type of hardware-based approach increases the battery production cost, which may impair its use for sensor node implementations. The objective of this work is to propose a software-based approach to estimate both the state of charge and the voltage of batteries in WSN nodes based on the use of a temperature-dependent analytical battery model. The achieved results demonstrate the feasibility of using embedded analytical battery models to estimate the lifetime of batteries, without affecting the tasks performed by the WSN nodes.