Performance Evaluation of MAC Protocols in Energy Harvesting Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks is considered as one of the most important elements in the upcoming Internet of Things. As sensors based applications are widely deployed, limited battery power of the sensor nodes becomes a serious problem. Intrusions or malfunction of legitimate sensor protocols can lead to the quick depletion of sensors batteries and a network failure. Energy harvesting facilities provide an attractive solution to this problem. The potential of the energy harvesting wireless sensor networks can be properly applied if the corresponding efficient network operations protocols will be implemented. Development of this protocols requires the corresponding mathematical tools for system performance evaluation. Most papers in this area focus on some concrete technical problem, but there is lack of papers analyzing common principles of energy harvesting wireless sensor networks operating. In this paper we partially fill this gap.