Simulating power/energy consumption of sensor nodes with flexible hardware in wireless networks

Energy consumption and real-time performance are two important metrics for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). To estimate these metrics, a number of simulation environments have been developed. However, these environments were made specifically for sensor nodes with fixed architectures. The recent generation of sensor nodes often has flexible architectures through the use of programmable hardware components, i.e., Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). So far, no simulators have been developed to evaluate the performance of such flexible nodes in wireless networks. In this paper, we present PowerSUNSHINE, a power- and energy-estimation tool that fills the void. PowerSUNSHINE is the first scalable power/energy estimation tool for WSNs that provides an accurate prediction for both fixed and flexible sensor nodes. In this paper, we first describe requirements and challenges of building PowerSUNSHINE. Then, we present power/energy models for both fixed and flexible sensor nodes. Two testbeds, a MicaZ platform and a flexible node consisting of a microcontroller, a radio and a FPGA based co-processor, are provided to demonstrate the simulation fidelity of PowerSUNSHINE. We also discuss several evaluation results based on simulation and testbeds to show that PowerSUNSHINE is a scalable simulation tool that provides accurate estimation of power/energy consumption for both fixed and flexible sensor nodes.