Should my toaster be polled? Towards an energy-efficient Internet of Things

Abstract

In the future Internet of Things, many common household devices will have communications interfaces added. We investigate energy-efficient design options for such communications interfaces in the Internet of Things through the example of a simple stock control application that may be commercially implemented. We have measured the power consumption of several popular wireless interfaces - 433 MHz module (RF433), Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and ZigBee - and we show how an energy-efficient communications paradigm can be designed in each case. This is a contribution to design guidelines for energy-efficient communication in the Internet of Things as it expands to encompass all consumer devices.