Power Beacon-Assisted Millimeter Wave Ad Hoc Networks

Deployment of low cost power beacons (PBs) is a promising solution for dedicated wireless power transfer (WPT) in future wireless networks. In this paper, we present a tractable model for PB-assisted millimeter wave (mmWave) wireless ad hoc networks, where each transmitter (TX) harvests energy from all PBs and then uses the harvested energy to transmit information to its desired receiver. Our model accounts for realistic aspects of WPT and mmWave transmissions, such as power circuit activation threshold, allowed maximum harvested power, maximum transmit power, beamforming and blockage. Using stochastic geometry, we obtain the Laplace transform of the aggregate received power at the TX to calculate the power coverage probability. We approximate and discretize the transmit power of each TX into a finite number of discrete power levels in log scale to compute the channel and total coverage probability. We compare our analytical predictions to simulations and observe good accuracy. The proposed model allows insights into effect of system parameters, such as transmit power of PBs, PB density, main lobe beam-width and power circuit activation threshold on the overall coverage probability. The results confirm that it is feasible and safe to power TXs in a mmWave ad hoc network using PBs.Comment: This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessibl

Wireless Power Transfer and Data Collection in Wireless Sensor Networks

In a rechargeable wireless sensor network, the data packets are generated by sensor nodes at a specific data rate, and transmitted to a base station. Moreover, the base station transfers power to the nodes by using Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) to extend their battery life. However, inadequately scheduling WPT and data collection causes some of the nodes to drain their battery and have their data buffer overflow, while the other nodes waste their harvested energy, which is more than they need to transmit their packets. In this paper, we investigate a novel optimal scheduling strategy, called EHMDP, aiming to minimize data packet loss from a network of sensor nodes in terms of the nodes' energy consumption and data queue state information. The scheduling problem is first formulated by a centralized MDP model, assuming that the complete states of each node are well known by the base station. This presents the upper bound of the data that can be collected in a rechargeable wireless sensor network. Next, we relax the assumption of the availability of full state information so that the data transmission and WPT can be semi-decentralized. The simulation results show that, in terms of network throughput and packet loss rate, the proposed algorithm significantly improves the network performance.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figures, accepted to IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technolog

Non-uniform deployment of power beacons in wireless powered communication networks

© 2002-2012 IEEE. In wireless powered communication networks (WPCNs), base station (BS) and power beacons (PBs) can offer supplement power for uplink transmission of user equipments (UEs). However, the aggregate power consumption of massively deployed PBs may exceed that of a BS. We propose a non-uniform deployment scheme for PBs in WPCNs, where a cell is divided into inner and outer areas, such that BS and PBs can cooperate to power UEs. To be more specific, a BS located in the center of a cell provides downlink power supply for the inner area UEs and uplink information decoding for all the UEs in the cell; while the PBs power UEs in the outer area. With multiple antennas, maximum ratio transmission and maximum ratio combining are adopted for downlink energy beamforming and uplink information reception. Considering a finite area of the network, we derive the distribution of the distance from a non-center-located UE to its nearest PB in the outer area. An optimization problem is formulated to minimize total average power consumption while satisfying BS average transmission power constraint and coverage probability threshold. Moreover, coverage probability is derived for performance evaluation. The numerical results show that the power consumption of the proposed scheme is reduced significantly compared to PB-only WPCNs

Wireless industrial monitoring and control networks: the journey so far and the road ahead

While traditional wired communication technologies have played a crucial role in industrial monitoring and control networks over the past few decades, they are increasingly proving to be inadequate to meet the highly dynamic and stringent demands of today’s industrial applications, primarily due to the very rigid nature of wired infrastructures. Wireless technology, however, through its increased pervasiveness, has the potential to revolutionize the industry, not only by mitigating the problems faced by wired solutions, but also by introducing a completely new class of applications. While present day wireless technologies made some preliminary inroads in the monitoring domain, they still have severe limitations especially when real-time, reliable distributed control operations are concerned. This article provides the reader with an overview of existing wireless technologies commonly used in the monitoring and control industry. It highlights the pros and cons of each technology and assesses the degree to which each technology is able to meet the stringent demands of industrial monitoring and control networks. Additionally, it summarizes mechanisms proposed by academia, especially serving critical applications by addressing the real-time and reliability requirements of industrial process automation. The article also describes certain key research problems from the physical layer communication for sensor networks and the wireless networking perspective that have yet to be addressed to allow the successful use of wireless technologies in industrial monitoring and control networks