Joint Energy-Delay Optimization of WuR-Assisted MAC Protocols in Energy Harvesting IoT

Abstract

The proliferation of the Internet of Things has precipitated a critical need for sustainable energy management strategies, particularly in devices deployed in remote or inaccessible environments. Energy Harvesting has emerged as a promising solution to extend theoperational lifetime of such networks indefinitely; however, the stochastic nature of environmental energy sources introduces significant instability. Simultaneously, Wake-up Radio technology offers a pathway to minimize idle listening, which is the primary source of energy wastage in traditional Medium Access Control protocols. This paper presents a comprehensive theoretical and simulation-based analysis of a novel Medium Access Control protocol that integrates Wake-up Radio hardware with Energy Harvesting capabilities. We formulate a joint optimization problem that dynamically adjusts the wake-up intervals and transmission parameters based on the instantaneous energy state and data buffer occupancy. The primary objective is to balance the conflicting requirements of minimizing packet delivery latency and maximizing energy neutrality. Through rigorous system modeling and extensive simulations, we demonstrate that the proposed approach significantly outperforms static dutycycling mechanisms. The results indicate that our adaptive protocol achieves a superior Pareto optimal frontier, ensuring reliable data delivery while maintaining the energy neutrality of the sensor nodes under variable harvesting conditions.