Optimal Data Collection in Hybrid Energy-Harvesting Sensor Networks

In hybrid energy harvesting sensor networks, there is a trade-off between the cost of data collection by a wireless sink and the timeliness of the collected data. The trade-off further depends on the energy harvesting capability of the sensor nodes as sensors cannot transmit data if they do not have sufficient energy. In this paper, we propose an analytic model for assessing the value of the information that a sensor node brings to decision making. We account for the timeliness of data by discounting the value of the information at the sensor over time and adopt the energy-chunk approach (i.e. discretise the energy level) to track energy harvesting and expenditure over time. Finally, by numerical experiments, we study the optimal data collection rate for the sensor node at hand.

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