Modeling of IoT Devices Energy Consumption in 5G Networks

The rising number of connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices in 5G networks and the standardization of the 3GPP reduced capability (RedCap) devices, turn the IoT energy efficiency into a topic of paramount importance for 5G. The design goals and use cases of RedCap devices highlight the need for long device battery life due to the infeasibility of replacing batteries. With the focus emerging on sustainable networks, battery lifetime prediction becomes essential. Therefore, in this paper, we propose and evaluate a Markov Chain based energy consumption model suitable for IoT devices in 5G networks, especially RedCap devices. We design a realistic model consistent with the procedures described in 3GPP standardization, mainly focused on the uplink transmission procedures. The proposed model is validated through extensive analysis with varying interarrival times (IAT) of the uplink traffic. For short IAT, the analytical results show a decrease of 33% in energy consumption and 89% in transmission latency. This demonstrates that our model can be applied to evaluate battery life for a broad range of IoT devices.