Medium access control for thermal energy harvesting in advanced metering infrastructures

In this paper we investigate the feasibility of powering wireless metering devices, namely heat cost allocators, by thermal energy harvested from radiators. The goal is to take a first step toward the realization of Energy-Harvesting Advanced Metering Infrastructures (EH-AMIs). While traditional battery-powered devices have a limited amount of energy, energy harvesting can potentially provide an infinite amount of energy for continuous operating lifetimes, thus reducing the cost involved in installation and maintenance. The contribution of this work is twofold. First, we experimentally identify the potential energy that can be harvested from Low Surface Temperature (LST) radiators. The experiments are based on a developed Energy-Harvesting Heat Cost Allocator (EH-HCA) prototype. On the basis of this measured power budget, we model and analytically compare the currently used Medium Access Control (MAC) scheme of an industrial case study (IMR+) to a MAC scheme specifically designed for energy harvesting systems (ODMAC). Our analytical comparison shows the efficiency of the latter, as well as its ability to adapt to harvested ambient energy.