[Avrora] Energy consumption values

[Daniel Minder]

Hi Daniel,

> I work in TinyOS 2.1 with MicaZ and I use avrora to calculate energy
> consumption.

Which Avrora version are you using? Which TinyOS program did you test? 
Have you tried one of the example apps, e.g. Blink? The output here is:

minder at xxx /opt/tinyos-2.x/apps/Blink/build/micaz
$ java avrora.Main -colors=false -platform=micaz -monitors=energy 
-seconds=10 -input=elf main.exe
Avrora [Beta 1.7.111] - (c) 2003-2007 UCLA Compilers Group

Loading main.exe...OK
=={ Simulation events 
}=======================================================
Node          Time   Event
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
==============================================================================
Simulated time: 73728000 cycles
=={ Energy consumption results for node 0 
}===================================
Node lifetime: 73728000 cycles,  10.0 seconds

CPU: 0.028163387109375004 Joule
    Active: 0.024858777044270836 Joule, 8073920 cycles
    Idle: 0.0 Joule, 0 cycles
    ADC Noise Reduction: 0.0 Joule, 0 cycles
    Power Down: 0.0 Joule, 0 cycles
    Power Save: 0.0033046100651041668 Joule, 65654080 cycles
    RESERVED 1: 0.0 Joule, 0 cycles
    RESERVED 2: 0.0 Joule, 0 cycles
    Standby: 0.0 Joule, 0 cycles
    Extended Standby: 0.0 Joule, 0 cycles

> In CPU, the consumption in idle mode is 36,015 Joule. This value is correct?

The power consumption comes from AEON (Landsiedel et al. "Accurate 
Prediction of Power Consumption in Sensor Networks") and it has proven 
to be correct.

> If the CPU is not active, should not be in sleep mode?

It depends on what your application is doing. There are several reasons 
for TinyOS not entering sleep mode, see chips/atm128/McuSleepC.nc 
getPowerState(), for example active external timers, radio 
transmissions, UART, I2C. Therefore, I asked if you tested with another 
application.

> SensorBoard is always on? should not be on when the CPU is on? or, only when
> the application read sensor?

That's true. But Avrora does not model the sensors itself, therefore 
this value might be a fictive value. Feel free to add energy models for 
the sensors to make it more accurate!

Best,
Daniel

-- 
Daniel Minder
University of Duisburg-Essen, Networked Embedded Systems
Bismarckstr. 90, 47057 Duisburg, Germany
Skype: d.minder