Energy harvesting in vehicular networks: a contemporary survey

Vehicular networks have recently been witnessing an upsurge of interest in energy consumption control. Precisely, in the majority of vehicular networking scenarios, roadside units are deployed along roadways in rural areas as well as on the sides of long highways where a direct connection to the electric grid is merely available. In such situations, these roadside units will be equipped with rechargeable batteries with maintenance requiring costly human intervention. Thus far, the literature offers several proposals of efficient operation schemes for roadside units aiming at optimizing their energy consumption, hence, elongating their duration of availability and participation in the network. Energy harvesting presents itself as an appealing alternative to power/recharge nodal batteries in wireless networks. This article starts by presenting a concise general overview of energy harvesting sources, techniques, and applications. Second, it investigates the feasibility of energy harvesting in vehicular networks, specifically the different challenges confronting its applicability in vehicular environments. Finally, pending related open research problems and directions are presented.