Time-synchronized wireless mesh networks using battery-powered nodes

This thesis proposes an implementation of battery-powered, time-synchronized wireless nodes that can be deployed in a wireless network topology. Wireless sensor networks are used in a wide variety of scenarios where emphasis is placed on the wireless nodes’ battery life. The main area of focus in this thesis is to examine how wireless nodes can save battery power by utilizing a deep sleep mode and wake up simultaneously using time synchronization to carry out their data communication. This was achieved by deploying five time-synchronized, battery-powered nodes in a wireless network topology. The difference in battery current draw between continuously running nodes and sleep-enabled nodes were measured, as well as the time duration needed by the nodes to successfully send their payloads and route other nodes’ data. The nodes needed between 1502 ms and 3273 ms on average to carry out their data communication, depending on where they were located in the network topology. Measurements show that sleep-enabled nodes on average draw substantially less current than continuously running nodes during a complete data communication cycle. When sleep-enabled nodes were powered by two AA batteries, an increase in battery life of up to 1800% was observed