Energy Harvesting - Wireless Sensor Networks for Indoors Applications Using IEEE 802.11

The paper investigates the feasibility of using IEEE 802.11 in energy harvesting low-power sensing applications. The investigation is based on a prototype carbon dioxide sensor node that is powered by artificial indoors light. The wireless communication module of the sensor node is based on the RTX4100 module. RTX4100 incorporates a wireless protocol that duty-cycles the radio while being compatible with IEEE 802.11 access points. The presented experiments demonstrate sustainable operation but indicate a trade-off between the benefits of using IEEE 802.11 in energy harvesting applications and the energy-efficiency of the system.