Reconfiguration Strategies for Environmentally Powered Devices: Theoretical Analysis and Experimental Validation

Environmental energy is becoming a feasible alternative to traditional energy sources for ultra low-power devices such as sensor nodes. These devices can run reactive applications that adapt their control flow depending on the sensed data. In order to reduce the energy consumption of the platform and also to meet the timing constraints imposed by the application, we propose to dynamically reconfigure the system through the use of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) fabric such that it executes more efficiently the tasks of the application. In this paper we present a new approach that enables the designer to efficiently explore different reconfiguration strategies for environmentally powered systems. For this we define a stochastic model of a harvesting video sensor node that captures the behavior of the node and of its environment. We use this approach to investigate the impact of different reconfiguration strategies for a video surveillance node on metrics of interest, such as the expected lifetime or downtime of the system. Then, we create a hardware implementation of an energy-aware reconfiguration manager on top of a custom multi-FPGA board. Our results show that the systems improve their processing capabilities if suitable reconfiguration strategies are defined for their respective configuration environments.

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Giovanni De Micheli, David Atienza Alonso, Alexandru Emilian Susu
2007
Journal paper

Abstract

Official source

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/110164?ln=en

About this result

Related concepts (4)

System

A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment, is described by its boundaries, structure and purpose and is expressed in its functioning. Systems are the subjects of study of systems theory and other systems sciences. Systems have several common properties and characteristics, including structure, function(s), behavior and interconnectivity.

Low-power electronics

Low-power electronics are electronics, such as notebook processors, that have been designed to use less electric power than usual, often at some expense. In the case of notebook processors, this expense is processing power; notebook processors usually consume less power than their desktop counterparts, at the expense of lower processing power. watch The earliest attempts to reduce the amount of power required by an electronic device were related to the development of the wristwatch.

Field-programmable gate array

A field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is an integrated circuit designed to be configured after manufacturing. The FPGA configuration is generally specified using a hardware description language (HDL), similar to that used for an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Circuit diagrams were previously used to specify the configuration, but this is increasingly rare due to the advent of electronic design automation tools. FPGAs contain an array of programmable logic blocks, and a hierarchy of reconfigurable interconnects allowing blocks to be wired together.