The vision of an Internet of Things (IoT) has captured the imagination of the world and raised billions of dollars, all before we stopped to deeply consider how all these Things should connect to the Internet. The current state-of-the-art requires application-layer gateways both in software and hardware that provide applicationspecific connectivity to IoT devices. In much the same way that it would be difficult to imagine requiring a new web browser for each website, it is hard to imagine our current approach to IoT connectivity scaling to support the IoT vision. The IoT gateway problem exists in part because today's gateways conflate network connectivity, in-network processing, and user interface functions. We believe that disentangling these functions would improve the connectivity potential for IoT devices. To realize the broader vision, we propose an architecture that leverages the increasingly ubiquitous presence of Bluetooth Low Energy radios to connect IoT peripherals to the Internet. In much the same way that WiFi access points revolutionized laptop utility, we envision that a worldwide deployment of IoT gateways could revolutionize application-agnostic connectivity, thus breaking free from the stove-piped architectures now taking hold. In this paper, we present our proposed architecture, show example applications enabled by it, and explore research challenges in its implementation and deployment.
Today, most sensors that harvest energy from indoor solar, ambient RF, or thermal gradients buffer small amounts of energy in capacitors as they intermittently work through a sensing task. While the utilization of capacitors for energy storage affords these systems indefinite lifetimes, their low energy capacity necessitates complex intermittent programming models for state retention and energy management. However, recent advances in battery technology lead us to reevaluate the impact that increased energy storage capacity may have on the necessity of these programming models and the reliability of energy harvesting sensors.In this paper, we propose a capacity-based framework to help structure energy harvesting sensor design, analyze the impact of capacity on key reliability metrics using a data-driven simulation, and consider how backup energy storage alters the design space. We find that for many designs that utilize solar energy harvesting, increasing energy storage capacity to 1-10 mWh can obviate the need for intermittent programming techniques, augment the total harvested energy by 1.4-2.3x, and improve the availability of a sensor by 1.3-2.6x. We also show that a hybrid design using energy harvesting with a secondary-cell battery and a backup primary-cell battery can achieve 2-4x the lifetime of primary-cell only designs while eliminating the failure modes present in energy harvesting systems. Finally, we implement an indoor, solar energy harvesting sensor based on our analysis and find that its behavior aligns with our simulation's predictions.
City-scale sensing holds the promise of enabling a deeper understanding of our urban environments. However, a city-scale deployment requires physical installation, power management, and communications-all challenging tasks standing between a good idea and a realized one. This indicates the need for a platform that enables easy deployment and experimentation for applications operating at city scale. To address these challenges, we present Signpost, a modular, energy-harvesting platform for city-scale sensing. Signpost simplifies deployment by eliminating the need for connection to wired infrastructure and instead harvesting energy from an integrated solar panel. The platform furnishes the key resources necessary to support multiple, pluggable sensor modules while providing fair, safe, and reliable sharing in the face of dynamic energy constraints. We deploy Signpost with several sensor modules, showing the viability of an energy-harvesting, multi-tenant, sensing system, and evaluate its ability to support sensing applications. We believe Signpost reduces the difficulty inherent in city-scale deployments, enables new experimentation, and provides improved insights into urban health. † https://github.com
City-scale sensing holds the promise of enabling deeper insight into how our urban environments function. Applications such as observing air quality and measuring sources of noise pollution can have powerful impacts, allowing city planners and citizen scientists alike to understand and improve their world. However, the path from conceiving applications to implementing them is fraught with many challenges. A successful city-scale deployment requires physical installation, power management, and communications-all challenging tasks standing between a good idea and a realized one, suggesting the need for a platform that enables easy deployment and experimentation of city-scale sensing applications. To address these basic challenges, we present Signpost, a modular platform for city-scale sensing. Signpost simplifies deployment and installation in cities by removing the need for connection to wired infrastructure and instead harvesting energy from an integrated solar panel.The platform provides the key resources necessary for its pluggable sensor modules to support city-scale applications. Signpost stores excess energy for later use, distributes energy between modules, and provides communication through multiple wireless protocols. It also offers local storage for sensor data and allows for additional processing in a duty-cycled Linux environment.
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