Information Capacity of Energy Harvesting Sensor Nodes

Abstract: Sensor nodes with energy harvesting sources are gaining popularity due to their ability to improve the network life time and are becoming a preferred choice supporting `green communication'. We study such a sensor node with an energy harvesting source and compare various architectures by which the harvested energy is used. We find its Shannon capacity when it is transmitting its observations over an AWGN channel and show that the capacity achieving energy management policies are related to the throughput optimal policies. We also obtain the capacity when energy conserving sleep-wake modes are supported and an achievable rate for the system with inefficiencies in energy storage.