Power consumption optimization of a wireless temperature sensor node using unidirectional communication

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are gaining increasing popularity in industry. Success of these systems depends on two very important factors: power efficiency of the sensor nodes and communication reliability. In this paper, we investigate the effect of using unidirectional (broadcasting) communication on the power consumption and reliability of a wireless sensor node. A high-precision wireless temperature sensor reported in an earlier publication is employed as a case study. First, we calculate the energy required to transmit and receive a message using Bluetooth low energy (BLE) in the physical layer without taking any reliability precautions. Then, we estimate the amount of energy required for the reliable transmission of a BLE packet using the BLE acknowledgment method and forward error correction (FEC) in the application layer. Through this paper, we show that the power consumption of a wireless temperature sensor can be reduced using broadcast communication and simultaneous forward error correction while providing enough reliability in short ranges.