Energy Harvesting Effect on the Sensors Battery Lifespan of an Energy Efficient SmartBAN Network

One of the key features that will bolster Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) widespread utilisation is the battery lifespan prolongation in the corporal sensors. The addition of energy harvesting methods in the sensors, and the use of energy efficient protocols in the WBANs, are essential to increase the battery duration. This work analyzes the effect of energy harvesting sensors in an ETSI SmartBAN PHY and MAC configuration framework already designed to lengthen the battery lifespan through reducing transceivers consumed energy. Analytical expressions for battery duration are derived. Computer simulation results substantiate the positive impact of energy harvesting on the battery lifespan, even for moderate captured power densities, when PHY and MAC layers are designed with energy efficiency in mind. Moreover, the obtained results demonstrate that the dependence of the battery lifetime elongation on the harvested power density is not linear and that higher harvestable power densities accentuate the batteries life lengthening.