Resource Allocation in Wireless Networks with RF Energy Harvesting and Transfer

Radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting and transfer techniques have recently become alternative methods to power the next generation of wireless networks. As this emerging technology enables proactive replenishment of wireless devices, it is advantageous in supporting applications with quality-of-service (QoS) requirement. This article focuses on the resource allocation issues in wireless networks with RF energy harvesting capability, referred to as RF energy harvesting networks (RF-EHNs). First, we present an overview of the RF-EHNs, followed by a review of a variety of issues regarding resource allocation. Then, we present a case study of designing in the receiver operation policy, which is of paramount importance in the RF-EHNs. We focus on QoS support and service differentiation, which have not been addressed by previous literatures. Furthermore, we outline some open research directions.Comment: To appear in IEEE Networ

Application of Smart Antenna Technologies in Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer

Simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) is a promising solution to increase the lifetime of wireless nodes and hence alleviate the energy bottleneck of energy constrained wireless networks. As an alternative to conventional energy harvesting techniques, SWIPT relies on the use of radio frequency signals, and is expected to bring some fundamental changes to the design of wireless communication networks. This article focuses on the application of advanced smart antenna technologies, including multiple-input multiple-output and relaying techniques, to SWIPT. These smart antenna technologies have the potential to significantly improve the energy efficiency and also the spectral efficiency of SWIPT. Different network topologies with single and multiple users are investigated, along with some promising solutions to achieve a favorable trade-off between system performance and complexity. A detailed discussion of future research challenges for the design of SWIPT systems is also provided

Energy-Efficient NOMA Enabled Heterogeneous Cloud Radio Access Networks

Heterogeneous cloud radio access networks (H-CRANs) are envisioned to be promising in the fifth generation (5G) wireless networks. H-CRANs enable users to enjoy diverse services with high energy efficiency, high spectral efficiency, and low-cost operation, which are achieved by using cloud computing and virtualization techniques. However, H-CRANs face many technical challenges due to massive user connectivity, increasingly severe spectrum scarcity and energy-constrained devices. These challenges may significantly decrease the quality of service of users if not properly tackled. Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) schemes exploit non-orthogonal resources to provide services for multiple users and are receiving increasing attention for their potential of improving spectral and energy efficiency in 5G networks. In this article a framework for energy-efficient NOMA H-CRANs is presented. The enabling technologies for NOMA H-CRANs are surveyed. Challenges to implement these technologies and open issues are discussed. This article also presents the performance evaluation on energy efficiency of H-CRANs with NOMA.Comment: This work has been accepted by IEEE Network. Pages 18, Figure

Wireless-Powered Communication Assisted by Two-Way Relay with Interference Alignment Underlaying Cognitive Radio Network

This study investigates the outage performance of an under-laying wireless-powered secondary system that reuses the primary users (PU) spectrum in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) cognitive radio (CR) network. Each secondary user (SU) harvests energy and receives information simultaneously by applying power splitting (PS) protocol. The communication between SUs is aided by a two-way (TW) decode and forward (DF) relay. We formulate a problem to design the PS ratios at SUs, the power control factor at the secondary relay, and beamforming matrices at all nodes to minimize the secondary network's outage probability. To address this problem, we propose a two-step solution. The first step establishes closedform expressions for the PS ratios at each SU and secondary relay's power control factor. Furthermore, in the second step, interference alignment (IA) is used to design proper precoding and decoding matrices for managing the interference between secondary and primary networks. We choose IA matrices based on the minimum mean square error (MMSE) iterative algorithm. The simulation results demonstrate a significant decrease in the outage probability for the proposed scheme compared to the benchmark schemes, with an average reduction of more than two orders of magnitude achieved