Radio frequency energy harvesting characterization: An experimental study

Uthman Baroudi*, Amin Ud Din Qureshi, Samir Mekid, Abdelhafid Bouhraoua

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

28 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper presents the outcomes of experiments performed to acquire data and to evaluate various parameters to: (1) assess the feasibility of harvesting the energy from the ambient RF power to energize wireless sensor nodes, and, (2) characterize commercially available PowerCastTM energy harvester. The parameters of interest are: (1) Ambient RF power along several bands, (2) Time, Tc, taken by PowerCastTM energy harvester for charging, and (3), The received signal strength indicator (RSSI) captured by PowerCastTM energy harvester. The former measurements are taken at different locations inside King Fahd University campus. The latter two quantities were computed from data acquired at various coordinates of the harvester relative to the transmitter and the source of energy. The data is acquired in indoor and outdoor scenarios. The acquired data was processed in MATLAB and it was concluded that: (1) The ambient RF power in not sufficient to energize the commercially available PowerCastTM RF power harvester which has a specified requirement of at least -10dBm power to successfully harvest RF energy. (2) The outdoor experiments suggested that Tc is directly, while RSSI is inversely proportional to the radial distance from the power transmitter. The two quantities are also significantly affected by the variation of azimuth and elevation of harvester w.r.t. the transmitter. (3) It is observed in the indoor experiments that trends of Tc and RSSI are not as regular as those in the case of outdoor experiments. Experimental procedure and all of the analyses are documented in detail so that it can be a useful reference for researchers working in this area.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProc. of the 11th IEEE Int. Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications, TrustCom-2012 - 11th IEEE Int. Conference on Ubiquitous Computing and Communications, IUCC-2012
Pages1976-1981
Number of pages6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2012

Publication series

NameProc. of the 11th IEEE Int. Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications, TrustCom-2012 - 11th IEEE Int. Conference on Ubiquitous Computing and Communications, IUCC-2012

Keywords

  • Ambient RF power
  • RF Energy Harvesting
  • RF Energy Models
  • Wireless Sensor Network

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Computer Science Applications

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