Powering environment monitoring Wireless Sensor Networks: A review of design and operational challenges in Eastern Africa

Abstract

This paper discusses the various design and operational challenges that we have met in providing power to Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) deployed in environment monitoring in East Africa. While such deployments in African environments have a major advantage of abundant sunshine, both in intensity and duration, the same environments still present a number of unique challenges. With the various research initiatives in Africa being quite disjointed, a major problem is the lack of a unified knowledge base that communicates the current challenges and solutions in designing power systems for these WSNs. We implemented a WSN with several autonomous sensors and two types of gateways. We kept track of voltages, uptime and other diagnostic data. We combine our experiences from the study of these devices, and those of some others in the region and other developing countries and make recommendations where we have achieved good results and propose solutions where work is still in progress.