Preliminary design for sustainable BLE Beacons powered by solar panels

In the coming age of Internet of Things, the underlying infrastructure that supports IoT applications will play a pivotal role. Bluetooth Low Energy Beacons, small radio frequency broadcasters that advertise their unique identification, have been highlighted for their possible usage in the IoT infrastructure, as a sensor network of BLE Beacons is capable of providing contextual and locational information to the users. However, as the size of the wireless sensor network has grown, finite battery capacity has proven to be a major challenge. Due to the limited battery capacity, Beacons require periodic maintenance and battery replacement, which results in increased beacon management cost and complexity. This paper attempts to remedy this problem through the integration of an energy harvesting mechanism with BLE Beacons, and explore the possibilities of using solar power to operate these devices. Experimental results for BLE Beacon power consumption and solar panel power output characteristics are presented, and therefore baseline parameters of the power requirements for sustainable BLE Beacons are established. Furthermore, a preliminary design of a solar-powered BLE Beacon is presented. It has been shown that a typical BLE Beacon with a transmission power of 0 dbm and advertising interval of 800 ms can be powered by a solar panel with surface area of 300 cm2, and a lithium ion rechargeable coin cell battery, LIR2450, with a nominal voltage of 3.6 V can be recharged by a solar panel with a surface area of 88 cm2.