Bootstrapping battery-freewireless networks: Efficient neighbor discovery and synchronization in the face of intermittency

Research output: Contribution to book/Conference proceedings/Anthology/ReportConference contributionContributedpeer-review

Abstract

Due to their favorable size, cost, and sustainability, batteryfree devices are preferable in various applications. However, battery-free devices operate only intermittently since ambient energy sources, such as light and radio-frequency signals, are often too weak to continuously power the devices. This paper addresses the unsolved problem of efficient device-to-device communication in the face of intermittency. We present Find, the first neighbor discovery protocol for battery-free wireless networks that uses randomized waiting to minimize discovery latency. We also introduce Flync, a new hardware/software solution that synchronizes indoor light harvesting nodes to powerline-induced brightness variations of widely used lamps, which we exploit to further speed up neighbor discovery. Experiments with an open-source prototype built from off-theshelf hardware components show that our techniques reduce the discovery latency by 4.3× (median) and 34.4× (99th percentile) compared with a baseline approach without waiting.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 18th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation, NSDI 2021
PublisherUSENIX Association
Pages439-455
Number of pages17
ISBN (electronic)9781939133212
Publication statusPublished - 2021
Peer-reviewedYes

Publication series

SeriesUSENIX Annual Technical Conference (ATC)

Conference

Title18th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation, NSDI 2021
Duration12 - 14 April 2021
CityVirtual, Online