Modern systems will increasingly rely on energy harvested from their environment. Such systems utilize batteries to smoothen out the random fluctuations in harvested energy. These fluctuations induce highly variable battery charge and discharge rates, which affect the efficiencies of practical batteries that typically have non-zero internal resistances. In this paper, we study an energy harvesting communication system using a finite battery with non-zero internal resistance. We adopt a dual-path architecture, in which harvested energy can be directly used, or stored and then used. In a frame, both time and power can be split between energy storage and data transmission. For a single frame, we derive an analytical expression for the rate optimal time and power splitting ratios between harvesting energy and transmitting data. We then optimize the time and power splitting ratios for a group of frames, assuming non-causal knowledge of harvested power and fading channel gains, by giving an approximate solution. When only the statistics of the energy arrivals and channel gains are known, we derive a dynamic programming based policy and, propose three sub-optimal policies, which are shown to perform competitively. In summary, our study suggests that battery internal resistance significantly impacts the design and performance of energy harvesting communication systems and must be taken into account.
Practical energy harvesting (EH) based communication systems typically use a battery to temporarily store the harvested energy prior to its use for communication. The batteries can be damaged when they are repeatedly charged (discharged) after being partially discharged (charged), overcharged or deeply discharged. This motivates the cycle constraint which says that a battery must be charged (discharged) only after it is sufficiently discharged (charged). We also assume Bernoulli energy arrivals, and a half-duplex constraint due to which the batteries are not charged and discharged simultaneous…
One of the main concerns in traditional Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is energy efficiency. In this work, we analyze two techniques that can extend network lifetime. The first is Ambient \emph{Energy Harvesting} (EH), i.e., the capability of the devices to gather energy from the environment, whereas the second is Wireless \emph{Energy Transfer} (ET), that can be used to exchange energy among devices. We study the combination of these techniques, showing that they can be used jointly to improve the system performance. We consider a transmitter-receiver pair, showing how the ET improvement dep…
Energy harvesting communication has raised great research interests due to its wide applications and feasibility of commercialization. In this paper, we investigate the multiuser energy diversity. Specifically, we reveal the throughput gain coming from the increase of total available energy harvested over time/space and from the combined dynamics of batteries. Considering both centralized and distributed access schemes, the scaling of the average throughput over the number of transmitters is studied, along with the scaling of corresponding available energy in the batteries.
Energy Harvesting allows the devices in a Wireless Sensor Network to recharge their batteries through environmental energy sources. While in the literature the main focus is on devices with ideal batteries, in reality several inefficiencies have to be considered to correctly design the operating regimes of an Energy Harvesting Device (EHD). In this work we describe how the throughput optimization problem changes under \emph{real battery} constraints in an EHD. In particular, we consider imperfect knowledge of the state of charge of the battery and storage inefficiencies, \emph{i.e.}, part of t…
We consider an energy harvesting multiple access channel (MAC) where the transmitters are powered by an exogenous stochastic energy harvesting process and equipped with finite batteries. We characterize the capacity region of this channel as n-letter mutual information rate and develop inner and outer bounds that differ by a constant gap. An interesting conclusion that emerges from our results is that the sum-capacity approaches that of a standard AWGN MAC (with only an average constraint on the transmitted power), as the number of users in the MAC becomes large.
Wireless networks can be self-sustaining by harvesting energy from radio-frequency (RF) signals. Building on classic cognitive radio networks, we propose a novel method for network coexisting where mobiles from a secondary network, called secondary transmitters (STs), either harvest energy from transmissions by nearby transmitters from a primary network, called primary transmitters (PTs), or transmit information if PTs are sufficiently far away; STs store harvested energy in rechargeable batteries with finite capacity and use all available energy for subsequent transmission when batteries are …
We study energy harvesting (EH) transmitter and receiver, where the receiver decodes data using the harvested energy from the nature and from an independent EH node, named helper. Helper cooperates with the receiver by transferring its harvested energy to the receiver over an orthogonal fading channel. We study an offline optimal power management policy to maximize the reliable information rate. The harvested energy in all three nodes are assumed to be known. We consider four different scenarios; First, for the case that both transmitter and the receiver have batteries, we show that the optima…
In energy harvesting (EH) network, the energy storage devices (i.e., batteries) are usually not perfect. In this paper, we consider a practical battery model with finite battery capacity, energy (dis-)charging loss, and energy dissipation. Taking into account such battery imperfections, we rely on the Lyapunov optimization technique to develop a stochastic online control scheme that aims to maximize the utility of data rates for EH multi-hop wireless networks. It is established that the proposed algorithm can provide a feasible and efficient data admission, power allocation, routing and schedu…
This paper investigates the maximum stable throughput of a cooperative cognitive radio system with energy harvesting Primary User and Secondary User. Each PU and SU has a data queue for data storage and a battery for energy storage. These batteries harvest energy from the environment and store it for data transmission in next time slots. The SU is allowed to access the PU channel only when the PU is idle. The SU cooperates with the PU for its data transmission, getting mutual benefits for both users, such that, the PU exploits the SU power to relay a fraction of its undelivered packets, and th…
Communication nodes with the ability to harvest energy from the environment have the potential to operate beyond the timeframe limited by the finite capacity of their batteries; and accordingly, to extend the overall network lifetime. However, the optimization of the communication system in the presence of energy harvesting devices requires a new paradigm in terms of power allocation since the energy becomes available over time. In this paper, we consider the problem of two-hop relaying in the presence of energy harvesting nodes. We identify the optimal offline transmission scheme for energy h…
In this letter, we investigate the security of a single-antenna rechargeable source node in the presence of a multi-antenna rechargeable cooperative jammer and a potential single-antenna eavesdropper. The batteries at the legitimate transmitting nodes (i.e. the source node and the jamming node) are assumed to be limited in capacity and are modeled as queueing systems. We investigate the impact of the energy arrival rates at the batteries on the achievable secrecy rates. In our energy-constrained network, we propose an efficient scheme to enhance the system's security by optimizing the transmis…
We consider a multiple-access channel where the users are powered from batteries having non-negligible internal resistance. When power is drawn from the battery, a variable fraction of the power, which is a function of the power drawn from the battery, is lost across the internal resistance. Hence, the power delivered to the load is less than the power drawn from the battery. The users consume a constant power for the circuit operation during transmission but do not consume any power when not transmitting. In this setting, we obtain the maximum sum-rates and achievable rate regions under vario…
In this paper, we consider an energy-harvesting (EH) relay system consisting of a source, a destination, and multiple EH decode-and-forward (DF) relays that can harvest the energy from their received radio signals. A power-splitting ratio is employed at an EH DF relay to characterize a trade-off between an energy used for decoding the source signal received at the relay and the remaining energy harvested for retransmitting the decode outcome. We propose an optimal power splitting and relay selection (OPS-RS) framework and also consider the conventional equal power splitting and relay selection…
An energy-harvesting sensor node that is sending status updates to a destination is considered. The sensor is equipped with a battery of finite size to save its incoming energy, and consumes one unit of energy per status update transmission, which is delivered to the destination instantly over an error-free channel. The setting is online in which the harvested energy is revealed to the sensor causally over time, and the goal is to design status update transmission policy such that the long term average age of information (AoI) is minimized. AoI is defined as the time elapsed since the latest u…
In recent years, wireless communication systems are expected to achieve more cost-efficient and sustainable operations by replacing conventional fixed power supplies such as batteries with energy harvesting (EH) devices, which could provide electric energy from renewable energy sources (e.g., solar and wind). Such EH power supplies, however, are random and instable in nature, and as a result impose new challenges on reliable communication design and have triggered substantial research interests in EH based wireless communications. Building upon existing works, in this article, we develop a gen…
This paper proposes a virtual harvest-transmit model and a harvest-transmit-store model for amplify-and-forward full-duplex relay (FDR) networks with power splitting-based simultaneous wireless information and power transfer. The relay node employs a battery group consisting of two rechargeable batteries. By switching periodically between two batteries for charging and discharging in two consecutive time slots of each transmission block, all the harvested energy in each block has been applied for full duplex transmission in the virtual harvest-transmit model. By employing energy scheduling, th…
In this paper, we consider the random access of nodes having energy harvesting capability and a battery to store the harvested energy. Each node attempts to transmit the head-of-line packet in the queue if its battery is nonempty. The packet and energy arrivals into the queue and the battery are all modeled as a discrete-time stochastic process. The main contribution of this paper is the exact characterization of the stability region of the packet queues given the energy harvesting rates when a pair of nodes are randomly accessing a common channel having multipacket reception (MPR) capability.…
This paper considers multiterminal networks with energy harvesting transmitter nodes that are also capable of wirelessly transferring energy to or receiving energy from other nodes in the network. In particular, the jointly optimal transmit power and energy transfer policies that maximize sum-throughput for the two-way, two-hop, and multiple access channels are identified. It is shown for nodes with infinite-sized batteries that delaying energy transfers until energy is needed immediately at the receiving node is sum-throughput optimal. Focusing on such procrastinating policies without loss of…
We consider the use of energy harvesters, in place of conventional batteries with fixed energy storage, for point-to-point wireless communications. In addition to the challenge of transmitting in a channel with time selective fading, energy harvesters provide a perpetual but unreliable energy source. In this paper, we consider the problem of energy allocation over a finite horizon, taking into account channel conditions and energy sources that are time varying, so as to maximize the throughput. Two types of side information (SI) on the channel conditions and harvested energy are assumed to be …
This paper considers a single-hop wireless network where a central node (or fusion center, FC) collects data from a set of m energy harvesting (EH) nodes (e.g. nodes of a wireless sensor network). In each time slot, k of m nodes can be scheduled by the FC for transmission over k orthogonal channels. FC has no knowledge about EH processes and current battery states of nodes; however, it knows outcomes of previous transmission attempts. The objective is to find a low complexity scheduling policy that maximizes total throughput of the data backlogged system using the harvested energy, for all typ…
The secrecy rate represents the amount of information per unit time that can be securely sent on a communication link. In this work, we investigate the achievable secrecy rates in an energy harvesting communication system composed of a transmitter, a receiver and a malicious eavesdropper. In particular, because of the energy constraints and the channel conditions, it is important to understand when a device should transmit and to optimize how much power should be used in order to improve security. Both full knowledge and partial knowledge of the channel are considered under a Nakagami fading s…
Wireless networks with energy harvesting battery powered nodes are quickly emerging as a viable option for future wireless networks with extended lifetime. Equally important to their counterpart in the design of energy harvesting radios are the design principles that this new networking paradigm calls for. In particular, unlike wireless networks considered up to date, the energy replenishment process and the storage constraints of the rechargeable batteries need to be taken into account in designing efficient transmission strategies. In this work, we consider such transmission policies for rec…
Energy harvesting for wireless communication networks is a new paradigm that allows terminals to recharge their batteries from external energy sources in the surrounding environment. A promising energy harvesting technology is wireless power transfer where terminals harvest energy from electromagnetic radiation. Thereby, the energy may be harvested opportunistically from ambient electromagnetic sources or from sources that intentionally transmit electromagnetic energy for energy harvesting purposes. A particularly interesting and challenging scenario arises when sources perform simultaneous wi…
This paper investigates the scaling exponent of polar codes for binary-input energy-harvesting (EH) channels with infinite-capacity batteries. The EH process is characterized by a sequence of i.i.d. random variables with finite variances. The scaling exponent $μ$ of polar codes for a binary-input memoryless channel (BMC) characterizes the closest gap between the capacity and non-asymptotic rates achieved by polar codes with error probabilities no larger than some non-vanishing $\varepsilon\in(0,1)$. It has been shown that for any $\varepsilon\in(0,1)$, the scaling exponent $μ$ for any binary-i…
Due to stringent constraints on resources, it may be infeasible to acquire the current channel state information at the transmitter in energy harvesting communication systems. In this paper, we optimize an energy harvesting transmitter, communicating over a slow fading channel, using layered coding. The transmitter has access to the channel statistics, but does not know the exact channel state. In layered coding, the codewords are first designed for each of the channel states at different rates, and then the codewords are either time-multiplexed or superimposed before the transmission, leading…
Designing mobiles to harvest ambient energy such as kinetic activities or electromagnetic radiation will enable wireless networks to be self sustaining besides alleviating global warming. In this paper, the spatial throughput of a mobile ad hoc network powered by energy harvesting is analyzed using a stochastic-geometry model. In this model, transmitters are distributed as a Poisson point process and energy arrives at each transmitter randomly with a uniform average rate called the energy arrival rate; upon harvesting sufficient energy, each transmitter transmits with fixed power to an intende…
This paper investigates a wireless-powered cooperative network (WPCN) consisting of one source-destination pair and multiple decode-and-forward (DF) relays. We develop an energy threshold based multi-relay selection (ETMRS) scheme for the considered WPCN. The proposed ETMRS scheme can be implemented in a fully distributed manner as the relays only need local information to switch between energy harvesting and information forwarding modes. By modeling the charging/discharging behaviours of the finite-capacity battery at each relay as a finite-state Markov Chain (MC), we derive an analytical exp…
A multi-access wireless network with N transmitting nodes, each equipped with an energy harvesting (EH) device and a rechargeable battery of finite capacity, is studied. At each time slot (TS) a node is operative with a certain probability, which may depend on the availability of data, or the state of its channel. The energy arrival process at each node is modelled as an independent two-state Markov process, such that, at each TS, a node either harvests one unit of energy, or none. At each TS a subset of the nodes is scheduled by the access point (AP). The scheduling policy that maximises the …
Wireless sensors can integrate rechargeable batteries and energy-harvesting (EH) devices to enable long-term, autonomous operation, thus requiring intelligent energy management to limit the adverse impact of energy outages. This work considers a network of EH wireless sensors, which report packets with a random utility value to a fusion center (FC) over a shared wireless channel. Decentralized access schemes are designed, where each node performs a local decision to transmit/discard a packet, based on an estimate of the packet's utility, its own energy level, and the scenario state of the EH p…
Energy harvesting in cellular networks is an emerging technique to enhance the sustainability of power-constrained wireless devices. This paper considers the co-channel deployment of a macrocell overlaid with small cells. The small cell base stations (SBSs) harvest energy from environmental sources whereas the macrocell base station (MBS) uses conventional power supply. Given a stochastic energy arrival process for the SBSs, we derive a power control policy for the downlink transmission of both MBS and SBSs such that they can achieve their objectives (e.g., maintain the signal-to-interference-…
This paper presents a design methodology for optimal transmission energy allocation at a sensor equipped with energy harvesting technology for remote state estimation of linear stochastic dynamical systems. In this framework, the sensor measurements as noisy versions of the system states are sent to the receiver over a packet dropping communication channel. The packet dropout probabilities of the channel depend on both the sensor's transmission energies and time varying wireless fading channel gains. The sensor has access to an energy harvesting source which is an everlasting but unreliable en…
Ambient radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting is widely promoted as an enabler for wireless-power Internet of Things (IoT) networks. This paper jointly characterizes energy harvesting and packet transmissions in grant-free opportunistic uplink IoT networks energized via harvesting downlink energy. To do that, a joint queuing theory and stochastic geometry model is utilized to develop a spatio-temporal analytical model. Particularly, the harvested energy and packet transmission success probability are characterized using tools from stochastic geometry. {Moreover, each device is modeled using a…
The theory of wireless information and power transfer in energy constrained wireless networks has caught the interest of researchers due to its potential in increasing the lifetime of sensor nodes and mitigate the environment hazards caused by conventional cell batteries. Similarly, the advancements in areas of cooperative spectrum sharing protocols has enabled efficient use of frequency spectrum between a licensed primary user and a secondary user. In this paper, we consider an energy constrained secondary user which harvests energy from the primary signal and relays the primary signal in exc…
A two-hop energy harvesting communication network is considered, in which measurement updates are transmitted by a source to a destination through an intermediate relay. Updates are to be sent in a timely fashion that minimizes the age of information, defined as the time elapsed since the most recent update at the destination was generated at the source. The source and the relay communicate using energy harvested from nature, which is stored in infinite-sized batteries. Both nodes use fixed transmission rates, and hence updates incur fixed delays (service times). Two problems are formulated: a…
