Lifetime Analysis for Ambient RF Energy Harvesting IoT Node

In this paper, we propose a novel theoretical method to analyze the lifetime of IoT node based on RF energy harvesting. We present the RF energy harvesting model and the energy consumption model, and we also measure the RF power density of 400-1000MHz in ambient environment. Then a theoretical model of the duration, during which the IoT node collects enough energy to run, is presented. Furthermore, based on the measurement, we can get the theoretical value and the simulation value of the duration, which shows that under the condition described in this paper the node need to collect RF energy in not less than 150s to support activities in 100ms. At last, some suggestions about the IoT nodes’ operating modes are given to support the application of the RF energy harvesting technology.