Wake-up receiver for wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks and body area networks are both hot topics in current academic research. The first results are promising and there are many possible areas where they can be used. However, not all problems are solved yet. One ofthe biggest challenges is the node- and network lifetime. Most nodes are battery powered and it often is impossible to frequently replace the batteries. In this paper a wake-up receiver is proposed which could decrease the overall power consumption. The maingoal of the wake-up receiver is to let the main radio sleep for prolonged periods in order to save power. To determine whether a wake-up receiver is beneficial the main application parameters are identified. At the end of the paper an application survey is done to determine which applications may benefit from the wake-up receiver scheme using the parameters identified earlier