Small-Sized and Noise-Reducing Power Analyzer Design
for Low-Power IoT Devices
Ryosuke Kitayama , Takashi Takenaka , Masao Yanagisawa , Nozomu Togawa
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Waseda University
GreenPlatform Laboratories, NEC Corporation
Email: {ryosuke.kitayama, togawa}@togawa.cs.waseda.ac.jp
AbstractPower analysis for IoT devices is strongly required
to reduce power consumption and realize secure communications,
where we need a small-sized power analyzer that can reduce
a wide frequency range of noises is needed. In this paper, we
propose a small-sized and noise-reduced power analyzer for IoT
devices. We utilize a signal averaging method to reduce a wide
frequency range of noises. At that time, how to implement a
synchronous process between a power analyzer and a target IoT
device becomes the key problem. We solve this problem by (a)
using synchronization signals generated by a general-purpose I/O
interface of a microprocessor and (b) introducing a data-order
correction process. We analyze power/energy consumption of the
encryption process of LED block cipher on the IoT device and
obtain an average power of 146.3mW and energy of 3.84mJ. The
proposed power analyzer is just implemented on a 5cm5cm
board but these results only have 5% errors compared to a high-
precision oscilloscope.
I. I NTRODUCTION
IoT is a system that controls thousands of devices with
network technologies [7], [4], [12]. Power saving of IoT
devices is quite important for applying them to wider fields,
since most of them run under severe conditions and it is
difficult to receive stable and unlimited power supply.
Communications among IoT devices must be encrypted
for security reasons and hence encryption processes on IoT
devices need to meet the requirement of the power constraint.
Overall, power analysis for IoT devices is strongly required.
Generally, an IoT device consumes a small amount of
power and then it is difficult to separate signals and noises
in a easy way. The noises that affect power analysis include
a wide frequency range of signals and hence reducing these
wide noises is required in IoT devices. What is more, a size
of a power analyzer is much limited by the capacity of its
installation location. A power analyzer needs to be as small as
possible. In summary, power analyzers for IoT devices require
that (1) they must reduce a wide frequency range of noises
and (2) their size must be small enough.
Several researches have been done on power analyzers for
IoT devices [6], [13], [16]. However, none of them meet the
requirements (1) and (2) above at the same time. RC low-pass
filtering and signal averaging are commonly used as a noise-
reducing method [9], [17], [18], [8]. As discussed in Section 2,
the latter one is better to use in IoT devices. The key problem
here is how to implement a synchronous process where we
synchronously start the power analysis process and the target
IoT device operation repeatedly. Furthermore, the synchronous
process has to be implemented on a power analyzer with a
small circuit and a lightweight program.
Based on this discussion, this paper proposes a small-sized
and noise-reduced power analyzer for IoT devices. We utilize
a signal averaging method to reduce a wide frequency range of
noises, where we realize a synchronous process by (a) using
synchronization signals generated by a general-purpose I/O
978-1-4799-8485-5/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE
interface in a microprocessor and (b) introducing a data-order
correction process. We analyze power/energy consumption of
LED block cipher encryption on the IoT device and obtain
an average power of 146.3mW and energy of 3.84mJ. The
proposed power analyzer is just implemented on a 5cm5cm
board but these results only have 5% errors compared to a
high-precision oscilloscope.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows: Section 2
summarizes IoT devices and their power analysis including
several existing works; Section 3 proposes our small-sized
and noise-reduced power analyzer; Section 4 demonstrates
several power/energy analysis results using the proposed power
analyzer; Section 5 gives several concluding remarks.
II. I OT DEVICE AND POWER ANALYSIS
As in [7], [10], most of IoT devices consist of sensors,
communication modules and a control module. Depending on
its purpose, an IoT device implements a variety of sensors. As
communication modules, we can use wired communications
such as Ethernet, USB and RS-232C and/or wireless commu-
nication such as Wi-Fi, zigbee and Bluetooth. We can use a
microcontroller as a controller module.
Security is one of the largest problems in IoT [3]. En-
cryption is required for communication among IoT devices
and encryption processes have to be as light as possible.
Furthermore, most of IoT devices cannot receive stable and
unlimited power supply and thus IoT devices must have several
power constraints. Power consumption analysis is strongly
required for IoT devices.
Several researches have been done on power analyzers
for IoT devices. Bucci et al. have proposed the measuring
system for micro electric power [6]. It can reduce a wide
range of noises and measure power consumption of tiny power
devices. However, this system includes large and complex
circuits and functions. This system satisfies the requirement (1)
but does not satisfy the requirement (2) described in Section 1.
Jiang et al. have proposed the micro power meter for wireless
sensor network devices [13]. The proposed micro power meter
is small enough and low cost. However it only uses RC
low-pass filters to achieve small-sized micro power meter
and hence cannot reduce a wide frequency range of noises
simultaneously. It satisfies the requirement (2) but does not
satisfy the requirement (1). SASEBO can be used to analyze
power analysis attack to low power devices or smart cards
[16]. We can perform power analysis using SASEBO, but we
need an outside power analyzer such as a general oscilloscope
to analyze the power. SASEBO itself is not enough to analyze
power consumption for IoT devices.
RC low-pass filtering is very often used for electric devices
but it is difficult to reduce low frequency noises and high
frequency noises simultaneously [9], [17]. A signal averaging
approach is also used very often [18], [8]. This approach can
reduce a wide frequency range of noises simultaneously and it
does not require special circuits nor programs to apply it to a
target IoT device. Signal averaging is better to utilize for IoT
device power analyzers.
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a common way to realize this process [5], where we start Fig. 4. Architecture of power measurement circuit board.
the measurement process when a target signal value becomes
less than a threshold or it becomes larger than a threshold.
However, it is difficult to use a trigger technique in a power B. Power measurement circuit board
analyzer for IoT devices, since IoT devices are small and low-
powered ones and their noises strongly affect a target trigger The power measurement circuit board consists of a mi-
signal. crocontroller, a voltage measurement circuit, and a current
From the reason above, we propose to implement the two measurement circuit. Fig. 4 shows the architecture of power
ideas onto a power analyzer to solve the problem: (a) We use measurement circuit board.
synchronization signals generated by a general-purpose I/O
interface in a microprocesser mounted on a power analyzer; Voltage measurement circuit and current measurement circuit:
(b) We introduce a data-order correction process run on the The voltage measurement circuit is indicated by the dotted
microprocesser. The idea (a) is not difficult to implement black line in Fig. 4. It is composed of a resistor voltage divider
because most of microcontrollers have general-purpose I/O which converts the input signal width for the A/D converter.
interfaces and we can utilize them. The idea (b) can be realized The current measurement circuit is indicated by the dotted
by adding a sequence number to every data and correcting a gray line in Fig. 4. In this figure, the shunt resistor has small
data order appropriately by using it. resistance which is inserted between the target IoT device and
GND. When the current flows through the shunt resistor, a po-
A. Architecture of our proposed power analyzer tential difference occurs at the both terminals. Since the potential
difference is too small, the differential amplifier amplifies it up
Our proposed power analyzer consists of a power mea- to a magnitude that can be read by the A/D converter.
surement circuit board and power analysis software on PC Microcontroller: The microcontroller is indicated by the black line
as shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 3 shows the power measurement
circuit. The size of the power measurement circuit board is in Fig. 4. It reads out the voltage and current signals that are
just 5cm5cm as shown in Fig. 3. A target IoT device receive input to the A/D converters via the voltage measurement circuit
a power supply from a USB port on PC via the power line and the current measurement circuit, respectively. It also trans-
in Fig. 2-.
1 The synchronous signal line shown in Fig. 2- 2 fers data of a measurement result to the power analysis software
also connect the target IoT device and the power measurement on PC. As the microcontroller, we use PIC24FJ64GB004. Its
circuit board, and it transmits 1-bit synchronous signal from clock frequency is 32MHz.
the power measurement circuit board to the target IoT device. Programs implemented on the microcontroller consist of
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circuit and PC as shown in Fig. 2. Let t[s] be the cycle of
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A/D conversion and n be the number of measurements for
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follows:

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h^W 1) Start the measurement: The power analysis software orders
the power measurement circuit board to start the measurement
via USB.
Fig. 5. Power analysis for LED block cipher.
2) Output the synchronization signal: The microcontroller on the
measurement circuit board outputs a synchronization signal to
the target IoT device via the synchronization signal line.
an initialization function, a USB communication function and 3) Start the target IoT device operation: When the target IoT
a power measurement function. The initialization function ini- device detects the state change in the synchronization signal
tializes modules on the microcontroller. The USB communica- line, it starts its operation.
tion function controls USB communications and transfers data. 4) Start A/D conversions: The microcontroller on the power
Microchip Libraries for Applications v2011-07-14 is used to measurement circuit board starts A/D conversion and obtains
implement the USB communication function [14]. The power m 10-bit digital values in every t[s] interval.
measurement function obtains the voltage and current values 5) Add the sequence number to each data: The microcontroller
from the A/D converters, and adds the sequence number of each on the power measurement circuit board adds the sequence
data to correct data ordering. MPLAB C30 C compiler is used number to each data. After that, it transfers the data to the power
to compile the programs [15]. The size of the programs becomes analysis software on PC via USB.
9K bytes. 6) Correct data order: After the power analysis software receives
Most microcontrollers have general-purpose I/O interfaces, data from the power measurement circuit board, it modifies the
which are I/O terminals that can control input/output signals by data order based on their data sequence number.
software. We can use a general-purpose I/O interface of the mi- 7) Obtain power consumption measurement values: By using
crocontroller PIC24FJ64GB004 and use it as a synchronization
Eqn. (1) and (2), we obtain the measurement power values.
signal as follows: Firstly, the microcontroller changes the status
of the register controlling the general-purpose I/O interface and The measurement process continues until its repeat count
enables the synchronization signal; Next, the synchronization reaches n. After that, we apply the signal averaging to all the
signal is transmitted through the synchronization signal line and n measurement results and then we can obtain a noise-reduced
the target IoT device starts its operation; At the same time, our power data.
power measurement circuit measures the current and voltage
data and stores them into the memory; After that, CPU in the
microcontroller read out the data from the memory in order, and IV. P OWER ANALYZING FOR LED BLOCK CIPHER
adds the sequence number of each data; Finally, CPU generates We have analyzed power consumption of encryption pro-
USB packets and send them out. By using the sequence numbers cess of LED block cipher [11] as a target IoT device. LED is
added here, we can realize data-order correction on PC. a lightweight cipher and can be used in an IoT device for its
security purpose.
C. Power analysis software A target IoT device is prepared based on discussion in
The power analysis software consists of a USB com- Section 2. Arduino Pro Mini 328 5V 16MHz is used as a
munication function, a data processing function, and a data control module, and a USB serial communication is used as
correction function. The USB communication function controls a communication module. The target IoT device does not
USB communication to the power measurement circuit board. have sensors. Instead, a 3K parallel resistance circuit is
We use the programs provided by Jan Axelsons Lakeview implemented on it.
Research to implement the USB communication function in
the power analysis software[2]. The data processing function A. Measurement setup
obtains voltage and current values from the A/D convertertion
values, and calculates power consumption. The A/D conver- The program which is proposed by Guo, a developer of
sion values are proportional to voltage or current values and LED block cipher, is used on the target IoT device [11]. It is
Eqns. (1) and (2) show how to convert A/D conversion values written in C and a compiler including in Arduino development
into voltage values and how to convert A/D conversion values environment is used to compile it. We set the key length of
into current values, respectively: LED cipher to 64 bits. The length of plaintext is also set to
8 bytes. Encryption process takes 420,992 cycles. The target
DV [V] = AV ADCV + BV (1) IoT device receives the power supply from PC via the power
measuring circuit. We set t = 27.9s and m = 1024. The
DI [mA] = AI ADCI + BI (2) MSO-X 3104A oscilloscope with the 1147A current probe is
where DV is a voltage value and ADCV is an A/D conversion used for comparison purpose. The MSO-X 3104A is connected
voltage value. DI is a current value and ADCI is an A/D con- to the target IoT device as shown in Fig. 5.
version current value. AV , AI , BV and BI are the parameters
for conversion. We set AV to 0.0583, AI to 0.040365, BV to B. Results of power analysis
0.00 and BI to 7.4072.
Fig. 6 shows the power consumption obtained by the pro-
The data correction function verifies errors of data order, posed power analyzer. Fig. 7 shows the current wave obtained
and fixes them correctly with data order sequence numbers by MSO-X 3104A where the second wave from the top shows
added in the microcontroller. By using the data correction the current wave. Table I shows the comparison results of
function, even in the case of some communication errors or power analysis. Since the voltage of a power supply to the
data losses occur, the proposed power analyzer can effectively target IoT device is 4.74V constantly, power consumption wave
perform a signal averaging process. must be almost the same as the current wave. The wave form

Wt
d
Fig. 8.
TABLE I.
Fig. 6. Result of power analysis of the LED block cipher using the proposed
power analyzer.
&XUUHQWZDYH
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VLJQDOZDYH [1]
[2]
Fig. 7. Result of power analysis of LED block cipher using MSO-X 3104A. [3]
of Fig. 6 is almost the same as the one in Fig. 7. In our power
analyzer, power consumption of LED block cipher encryption [4]
becomes 146.3mW and its energy becomes 3.86mJ as in Table
I.
[5]
They includes approximately 5.3% error compared to
MSO-X 3104A oscilloscope. According to [1], the 1147A cur-
rent probe includes a maximum of 2.5mA measurement error. [6]
Since the voltage of a power supply to the target IoT device
is 4.74V, the average current of LED block cipher measured [7]
by our proposed power analyzer becomes 146.3mW/4.74V =
30.86mA. Even if this current value includes 5.3% error, it just
becomes 30.86mA 0.053 = 1.64mA which is less than the [8]
maximum error in the 1147A current probe. We consider that
our result on the proposed power analyzer is quite reasonable,
even though its size is quite small and light. [9]
Fig. 8 shows an FFT analysis result for the power analysis
for LED block cipher using the proposed power analyzer. [10]
The gray wave shows the result when we have performed
signal averaging. The black wave shows the result when signal
averaging has not been performed. As shown in this figure,
the wide frequency of noises are successfully reduced by [11]
approximately by 10 dB by using the signal averaging.
[12]
V. C ONCLUSIONS
[13]
In this paper, we have proposed a small-sized and noise-
reduced power analyzer for low-power IoT devices. It uses a
signal averaging approach which can reduce a wide frequency [14]
range of noises. We have analyzed the power consumption of
the encryption process of LED block cipher and the measured
power and energy are 146.3mW and 3.86mJ, respectively, [15]
which just include 5.3% errors.
In the future, we will develop a power analyzer that is able [16]
to measure tinier power with high accuracy.
[17]
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
[18]
The authors would like to thank the members of Green Platform Research
Laboratories, NEC, for their insightful comments. This research was supported
in part by SCOPE from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
W


&,
FFT analysis of the power analysis result.
R ESULTS OF POWER ANALYSIS FOR LED BLOCK CIPHER .
MSO-X 3104A Proposed Power analyzer
Power [mW] 138.9 (1.00) 146.3 (1.05)
Energy [mJ] 3.65 (1.00) 3.84 (1.05)
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