Analysis of a wireless sensor node with varying rates of energy harvesting and consumption

The problem of performance evaluation of a wireless sensor node with energy harvesting is considered. It is reduced to analysis of the stationary distribution of a single-server queueing system to which the Marked Markovian Arrival process of customers and energy units arrives. The buffer for the customers has an infinite capacity while the buffer for energy accumulation is the finite one. Energy is required for providing service of a customer. If energy is not available, service is postponed. To account possible fluctuation of the system parameters, it is assumed that the system operates in a random environment which is defined by the finite state continuous-time Markov chain. Such fluctuations are possible, e.g., due to the change of the signal’s generation rate in the sensor node or the change of energy harvesting rate depending on weather conditions. Under the fixed state of the random environment, the rates of arrivals of energy and customers and service rates are constant while they can change their values at the moments of the jumps of the random environment. Customers in the buffer may be impatient and leave the system after the exponentially distributed amount of time. The stationary distribution of the system states and the main performance measures of the system are calculated. © 2017, Springer International Publishing AG.