Wireless Networks With RF Energy Harvesting: A Contemporary Survey
TL;DR: This paper presents an overview of the RF-EHNs including system architecture, RF energy harvesting techniques, and existing applications, and explores various key design issues according to the network types, i.e., single-hop networks, multiantenna networks, relay networks, and cognitive radio networks.
Abstract: Radio frequency (RF) energy transfer and harvesting techniques have recently become alternative methods to power the next-generation wireless networks As this emerging technology enables proactive energy replenishment of wireless devices, it is advantageous in supporting applications with quality-of-service requirements In this paper, we present a comprehensive literature review on the research progresses in wireless networks with RF energy harvesting capability, which is referred to as RF energy harvesting networks (RF-EHNs) First, we present an overview of the RF-EHNs including system architecture, RF energy harvesting techniques, and existing applications Then, we present the background in circuit design as well as the state-of-the-art circuitry implementations and review the communication protocols specially designed for RF-EHNs We also explore various key design issues in the development of RF-EHNs according to the network types, ie, single-hop networks, multiantenna networks, relay networks, and cognitive radio networks Finally, we envision some open research directions
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TL;DR: This paper aims to provide a contemporary and comprehensive literature review on fundamentals, applications, challenges, and research efforts/progress of ambient backscatter communications.
Abstract: Recently, ambient backscatter communication has been introduced as a cutting-edge technology which enables smart devices to communicate by utilizing ambient radio frequency (RF) signals without requiring active RF transmission. This technology is especially effective in addressing communication and energy efficiency problems for low-power communications systems such as sensor networks, and thus it is expected to realize numerous Internet-of-Things applications. Therefore, this paper aims to provide a contemporary and comprehensive literature review on fundamentals, applications, challenges, and research efforts/progress of ambient backscatter communications. In particular, we first present fundamentals of backscatter communications and briefly review bistatic backscatter communications systems. Then, the general architecture, advantages, and solutions to address existing issues and limitations of ambient backscatter communications systems are discussed. Additionally, emerging applications of ambient backscatter communications are highlighted. Finally, we outline some open issues and future research directions.
650 citations
TL;DR: This paper identifies and provides a detailed description of various potential emerging technologies for the fifth generation communications with SWIPT/WPT and provides some interesting research challenges and recommendations with the objective of stimulating future research in this emerging domain.
Abstract: Initial efforts on wireless power transfer (WPT) have concentrated toward long-distance transmission and high power applications. Nonetheless, the lower achievable transmission efficiency and potential health concerns arising due to high power applications, have caused limitations in their further developments. Due to tremendous energy consumption growth with ever-increasing connected devices, alternative wireless information and power transfer techniques have been important not only for theoretical research but also for the operational costs saving and for the sustainable growth of wireless communications. In this regard, radio frequency energy harvesting (RF-EH) for a wireless communications system presents a new paradigm that allows wireless nodes to recharge their batteries from the RF signals instead of fixed power grids and the traditional energy sources. In this approach, the RF energy is harvested from ambient electromagnetic sources or from the sources that directionally transmit RF energy for EH purposes. Notable research activities and major advances have occurred over the last decade in this direction. Thus, this paper provides a comprehensive survey of the state-of-art techniques, based on advances and open issues presented by simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) and WPT assisted technologies. More specifically, in contrast to the existing works, this paper identifies and provides a detailed description of various potential emerging technologies for the fifth generation communications with SWIPT/WPT. Moreover, we provide some interesting research challenges and recommendations with the objective of stimulating future research in this emerging domain.
621 citations
Cites background or methods from "Wireless Networks With RF Energy Ha..."
...If the power of signal processing noise is denoted by σ 2 sp, the maximum ID rate of receiver j decoded from the source [11] i can be written as...
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...in RF EH, but due to the inverse-square law, RF energy transfer is limited in terms of its coverage range [11]....
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...In [11], a survey is presented based on current research in radio frequency EH networks (RF-EHNs)....
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...has attracted significant attention in wireless communication networks [10], [11]....
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...These works [7], [11], [13] have provided valuable insights into foundational aspects of...
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TL;DR: This article presents an overview of enabling technologies for efficient WEH, analyzes the lifetime of WEH-enabled IoT devices, and briefly study the future trends in the design of efficientWEH systems and research challenges that lie ahead.
Abstract: The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging computing concept that describes a structure in which everyday physical objects, each provided with unique identifiers, are connected to the Internet without requiring human interaction. Long-term and self-sustainable operation are key components for realization of such a complex network, and entail energy-aware devices that are potentially capable of harvesting their required energy from ambient sources. Among different energy harvesting methods, such as vibration, light, and thermal energy extraction, wireless energy harvesting (WEH) has proven to be one of the most promising solutions by virtue of its simplicity, ease of implementation, and availability. In this article, we present an overview of enabling technologies for efficient WEH, analyze the lifetime of WEH-enabled IoT devices, and briefly study the future trends in the design of efficient WEH systems and research challenges that lie ahead.
587 citations
Additional excerpts
...IoT aims to make the Internet ubiquitous and pervasive, and has the potential to affect many aspects of users’ quality of life....
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...…the recent development of energy harvesting technologies mitigates the energy scarcity issue, the sensor device still has to operate in duty-cycled mode due to limited energy collection from the environment, and dynamically adjust duty cycles to adapt to the availability of environmental energy....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors considered a multi-user MEC network powered by the WPT, where each energy-harvesting WD follows a binary computation offloading policy, i.e., the data set of a task has to be executed as a whole either locally or remotely at the MEC server via task offloading.
Abstract: Finite battery lifetime and low computing capability of size-constrained wireless devices (WDs) have been longstanding performance limitations of many low-power wireless networks, e.g., wireless sensor networks and Internet of Things. The recent development of radio frequency-based wireless power transfer (WPT) and mobile edge computing (MEC) technologies provide a promising solution to fully remove these limitations so as to achieve sustainable device operation and enhanced computational capability. In this paper, we consider a multi-user MEC network powered by the WPT, where each energy-harvesting WD follows a binary computation offloading policy, i.e., the data set of a task has to be executed as a whole either locally or remotely at the MEC server via task offloading. In particular, we are interested in maximizing the (weighted) sum computation rate of all the WDs in the network by jointly optimizing the individual computing mode selection (i.e., local computing or offloading) and the system transmission time allocation (on WPT and task offloading). The major difficulty lies in the combinatorial nature of the multi-user computing mode selection and its strong coupling with the transmission time allocation. To tackle this problem, we first consider a decoupled optimization, where we assume that the mode selection is given and propose a simple bi-section search algorithm to obtain the conditional optimal time allocation. On top of that, a coordinate descent method is devised to optimize the mode selection. The method is simple in implementation but may suffer from high computational complexity in a large-size network. To address this problem, we further propose a joint optimization method based on the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) decomposition technique, which enjoys a much slower increase of computational complexity as the networks size increases. Extensive simulations show that both the proposed methods can efficiently achieve a near-optimal performance under various network setups, and significantly outperform the other representative benchmark methods considered.
563 citations
TL;DR: This paper highlights three different energy harvester models, namely, one linear model and two nonlinear models, and shows how WIPT designs differ for each of them in single-user and multi-user deployments, and identifies the fundamental tradeoff between conveying information and power wirelessly.
Abstract: Radio waves carry both energy and information simultaneously. Nevertheless, radio-frequency (RF) transmissions of these quantities have traditionally been treated separately. Currently, the community is experiencing a paradigm shift in wireless network design, namely, unifying wireless transmission of information and power so as to make the best use of the RF spectrum and radiation as well as the network infrastructure for the dual purpose of communicating and energizing. In this paper, we review and discuss recent progress in laying the foundations of the envisioned dual purpose networks by establishing a signal theory and design for wireless information and power transmission (WIPT) and identifying the fundamental tradeoff between conveying information and power wirelessly. We start with an overview of WIPT challenges and technologies, namely, simultaneous WIPT (SWIPT), wirelessly powered communication networks (WPCNs), and wirelessly powered backscatter communication (WPBC). We then characterize energy harvesters and show how WIPT signal and system designs crucially revolve around the underlying energy harvester model. To that end, we highlight three different energy harvester models, namely, one linear model and two nonlinear models, and show how WIPT designs differ for each of them in single-user and multi-user deployments. Topics discussed include rate-energy region characterization, transmitter and receiver architectures, waveform design, modulation, beamforming and input distribution optimizations, resource allocation, and RF spectrum use. We discuss and check the validity of the different energy harvester models and the resulting signal theory and design based on circuit simulations, prototyping, and experimentation. We also point out numerous directions that are promising for future research.
556 citations
Cites methods from "Wireless Networks With RF Energy Ha..."
...It has since then been used extensively throughout the WIPT literature, with among others [11]–[18], [22]–[40]....
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References
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Book•
15 Jan 1996
TL;DR: WireWireless Communications: Principles and Practice, Second Edition is the definitive modern text for wireless communications technology and system design as discussed by the authors, which covers the fundamental issues impacting all wireless networks and reviews virtually every important new wireless standard and technological development, offering especially comprehensive coverage of the 3G systems and wireless local area networks (WLANs).
Abstract: From the Publisher:
The indispensable guide to wireless communicationsnow fully revised and updated!
Wireless Communications: Principles and Practice, Second Edition is the definitive modern text for wireless communications technology and system design. Building on his classic first edition, Theodore S. Rappaport covers the fundamental issues impacting all wireless networks and reviews virtually every important new wireless standard and technological development, offering especially comprehensive coverage of the 3G systems and wireless local area networks (WLANs) that will transform communications in the coming years. Rappaport illustrates each key concept with practical examples, thoroughly explained and solved step by step.
Coverage includes:
An overview of key wireless technologies: voice, data, cordless, paging, fixed and mobile broadband wireless systems, and beyond
Wireless system design fundamentals: channel assignment, handoffs, trunking efficiency, interference, frequency reuse, capacity planning, large-scale fading, and more
Path loss, small-scale fading, multipath, reflection, diffraction, scattering, shadowing, spatial-temporal channel modeling, and microcell/indoor propagation
Modulation, equalization, diversity, channel coding, and speech coding
New wireless LAN technologies: IEEE 802.11a/b, HIPERLAN, BRAN, and other alternatives
New 3G air interface standards, including W-CDMA, cdma2000, GPRS, UMTS, and EDGE
Bluetooth wearable computers, fixed wireless and Local Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS), and other advanced technologies
Updated glossary of abbreviations and acronyms, and a thorolist of references
Dozens of new examples and end-of-chapter problems
Whether you're a communications/network professional, manager, researcher, or student, Wireless Communications: Principles and Practice, Second Edition gives you an in-depth understanding of the state of the art in wireless technologytoday's and tomorrow's.
17,102 citations
"Wireless Networks With RF Energy Ha..." refers methods in this paper
...A practical and widely adopted probabilistic model is a Rayleigh model [26], which represents the situation when there is no line-of-sight channel between a transmitter and receiver....
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Book•
01 Jan 1982
TL;DR: The most up-to-date resource available on antenna theory and design as mentioned in this paper provides an extended coverage of ABET design procedures and equations making meeting ABET requirements easy and preparing readers for authentic situations in industry.
Abstract: The most-up-to-date resource available on antenna theory and design Expanded coverage of design procedures and equations makes meeting ABET design requirements easy and prepares readers for authentic situations in industry New coverage of microstrip antennas exposes readers to information vital to a wide variety of practical applicationsComputer programs at end of each chapter and the accompanying disk assist in problem solving, design projects and data plotting-- Includes updated material on moment methods, radar cross section, mutual impedances, aperture and horn antennas, and antenna measurements-- Outstanding 3-dimensional illustrations help readers visualize the entire antenna radiation pattern
14,065 citations
"Wireless Networks With RF Energy Ha..." refers methods in this paper
...avelength of the RF signals and the distance between an RF energy source and the harvesting node. The harvested RF power from a transmitter in free space can be calculated based on the Friis equation [24] as follows: P R =P T G TG Rλ2 (4πd)2L (1) where P R is the received power, P T is the transmit power, L is the path loss factor, G T is the transmit antenna gain, G R is the receive antenna gain, λ i...
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TL;DR: This work reveals that it is in general not optimal to regard the information to be multicast as a "fluid" which can simply be routed or replicated, and by employing coding at the nodes, which the work refers to as network coding, bandwidth can in general be saved.
Abstract: We introduce a new class of problems called network information flow which is inspired by computer network applications. Consider a point-to-point communication network on which a number of information sources are to be multicast to certain sets of destinations. We assume that the information sources are mutually independent. The problem is to characterize the admissible coding rate region. This model subsumes all previously studied models along the same line. We study the problem with one information source, and we have obtained a simple characterization of the admissible coding rate region. Our result can be regarded as the max-flow min-cut theorem for network information flow. Contrary to one's intuition, our work reveals that it is in general not optimal to regard the information to be multicast as a "fluid" which can simply be routed or replicated. Rather, by employing coding at the nodes, which we refer to as network coding, bandwidth can in general be saved. This finding may have significant impact on future design of switching systems.
8,533 citations
"Wireless Networks With RF Energy Ha..." refers background in this paper
...Network coding [231] is well-known to be energy efficient in information transmission....
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TL;DR: A quantitative model is presented describing the power transfer of self-resonant coils in a strongly coupled regime, which matches the experimental results to within 5%.
Abstract: Using self-resonant coils in a strongly coupled regime, we experimentally demonstrated efficient nonradiative power transfer over distances up to 8 times the radius of the coils We were able to transfer 60 watts with ∼40% efficiency over distances in excess of 2 meters We present a quantitative model describing the power transfer, which matches the experimental results to within 5% We discuss the practical applicability of this system and suggest directions for further study
5,284 citations
"Wireless Networks With RF Energy Ha..." refers background in this paper
...Magnetic resonance coupling [7] utilizes evanescent-wave coupling to generate and transfer electrical energy between two resonators....
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TL;DR: While the proposed algorithms are suboptimal, they lead to simpler transmitter and receiver structures and allow for a reasonable tradeoff between performance and complexity.
Abstract: The use of space-division multiple access (SDMA) in the downlink of a multiuser multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communications network can provide a substantial gain in system throughput. The challenge in such multiuser systems is designing transmit vectors while considering the co-channel interference of other users. Typical optimization problems of interest include the capacity problem - maximizing the sum information rate subject to a power constraint-or the power control problem-minimizing transmitted power such that a certain quality-of-service metric for each user is met. Neither of these problems possess closed-form solutions for the general multiuser MIMO channel, but the imposition of certain constraints can lead to closed-form solutions. This paper presents two such constrained solutions. The first, referred to as "block-diagonalization," is a generalization of channel inversion when there are multiple antennas at each receiver. It is easily adapted to optimize for either maximum transmission rate or minimum power and approaches the optimal solution at high SNR. The second, known as "successive optimization," is an alternative method for solving the power minimization problem one user at a time, and it yields superior results in some (e.g., low SNR) situations. Both of these algorithms are limited to cases where the transmitter has more antennas than all receive antennas combined. In order to accommodate more general scenarios, we also propose a framework for coordinated transmitter-receiver processing that generalizes the two algorithms to cases involving more receive than transmit antennas. While the proposed algorithms are suboptimal, they lead to simpler transmitter and receiver structures and allow for a reasonable tradeoff between performance and complexity.
3,291 citations
"Wireless Networks With RF Energy Ha..." refers methods in this paper
...To mitigate th interference, the authors propose to use block diagonaliza tion preceding method which can support a limited number of information receivers due to zero-forcing channel inversi on [150]....
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