RIIM’s mesh routers can support up to 4 years battery lifetime on 2 AA batteries by using a variant of the Time-Synchronized Channel Hopping (TSCH) technology called “Receiver-based TSCH”.

Review our application note, AN042: Battery-Operated Mesh: Theory, Benefits, and Performance Results for more details.

Sometimes there is a need to gather sensor data in an area without infrastructure. It can be on a construction site, on a cornfield or a railway bridge in the desert. Getting main powered to all the sensors or putting up mains power gateways is not economically feasible. And the amount of data, requirement for two-way communication and battery lifetime requirement makes traditional LPWANs fail. In this case the need for a new and innovative wireless solution is needed, making battery operated wireless sensors with two-way capability and long battery lifetime a possibility. From such requirements we see the concept of battery-operated mesh rising, which is supported by Radiocrafts’ Industrial IP mesh solution, RIIM

Conventional Mesh Routers need to be powered by a main power source as they do not support the option of going into Sleep Mode. However, by using “Reciever-based TSCH”, RIIM’s Mesh Routers can go into Sleep Mode in idle times.

The idea behind Receiver-based TSCH is that a Mesh Router’s radio does not always have to stay on. Instead, it is only on in predetermined time slots. These time slots or listening windows are when transmitter nodes send their messages to a specific receiving node. This allows for the rise of battery-operated Mesh Routers, which can operate up to 4 years on 2 AA batteries.

You can read more about the simulation results we ran on Battery-Operated Mesh using RIIM here.

You can read more about the RIIM network here.

You can also read about using RIIM for Smart Irrigation, a typical application which would benefit from Battery-Operated mesh routers, here.

If you are interested in testing RIIM’s battery-operated mesh routers for your own application, then buy a RIIM development kit from here. The development kits are designed to be easy to use and to very quickly support a wireless link or network, where you can make a good analysis of the network performance.