Title: A prototype low-cost wakeup radio for the 868 MHz band

Authors: Bas Van der Doorn, Winelis Kavelaars, Koen Langendoen

Addresses: Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 4, 2628 CD Delft, The Netherlands. ' SOWNet Technologies BV, Delftechpark 26, 2628 XH Delft, The Netherlands. ' Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 4, 2628 CD Delft, The Netherlands

Abstract: In many wireless sensor network scenarios, battery-powered nodes must operate for years, which necessitate the need for advanced power management of the radio. In this paper, we pursue the idea of using a second, ultra low-power radio that can be used to trigger a remote interrupt, so that a receiver can fire up its primary radio to engage in efficient high-speed communication with the sender. Wakeup radio avoids the complex bookkeeping associated with energy-efficient MAC protocols, but at the price of additional hardware. We present the first design of a low-cost wakeup radio made out of standard components. Our working prototype implementation operates in the European license-free 868 MHz band, and includes a specialised low-power microcontroller filtering out interference (e.g. GSM signals), which makes it practical for use in many real-world settings.

Keywords: WSNs; wireless sensor networks; low power microcontrollers; link layer; experimentation; wakeup radio; wireless networks; interference filtering.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSNET.2009.023313

International Journal of Sensor Networks, 2009 Vol.5 No.1, pp.22 - 32

Published online: 18 Feb 2009 *

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