Implementation of external power-gating technique during sensing phase in wireless sensor networks

Sensor networks usually complete several data processing tasks that include the acquiring sensor samples, preparing messages containing data, and sending/receiving radio messages. In this paper, we consider the impact of the sensing subsystem, intended for area monitoring applications, and its effect on the power consumption of sensor networks. We describe a sensing subsystem with implemented power gating technique that acquires information from many sensor elements. Our simulation results suggest that, thanks to involving the power gating technique in sensor networks that use off-chip (off-the-shelf) sensor elements, a three orders of magnitude reduction (x6000) in energy consumption, can be achieved.