Achievable Rate-Power Tradeoff in THz SWIPT Systems with Resonant Tunnelling Diodes

In this paper, we study terahertz (THz) simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) systems. Since coherent information detection is challenging at THz frequencies and Schottky diodes are not usable for THz energy harvesting (EH), we employ unipolar amplitude shift keying (ASK) modulation at the transmitter (TX) and a resonant tunnelling diode (RTD)- based EH circuit at the receiver (RX) to extract both information and power from the received signal. However, the electrical properties of Schottky diodes and RTDs are different, and unlike EH receivers based on a single Schottky diode, an accurate closed-form EH model for RTD-based RXs is not available, yet. In this paper, we model the dependency of the instantaneous RX output power on the instantaneous received power by a non-linear piecewise function, whose parameters are adjusted to fit circuit simulation results. We formulate an optimization problem to maximize the mutual information between the TX and RX signals subject to constraints on the peak amplitude of the transmitted signal and the required average harvested power at the RX. Furthermore, we determine a feasibility condition for the formulated problem, and for high and low required average harvested powers, we derive the achievable information rate numerically and in closed form, respectively. Our simulation results highlight a tradeoff between the information rate and the average harvested power. Finally, we show that this tradeoff is determined by the peak amplitude of the transmitted signal and the maximum instantaneous harvested power for low and high received signal powers, respectively.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, submitted for possible conference publicatio

Analysis and design of energy harvesting wireless communication systems

Wireless-powered communication is an emerging technology for powering the large number of miniature devices of the future. In a wireless-powered communication system, low-power sensors extract energy from the incident wireless signals to power their operations such as information transmission, sensing or reception. Due to sporadic energy availability, however, such a system is fundamentally different from a traditionally-powered communication system. This dissertation investigates three distinct aspects of wireless-powered communications to get insights on the system operation. First, leveraging concepts from finite-length information theory, an analytical framework is developed for examining wireless-powered communications with short packets, i.e., in the finite blocklength regime. This is relevant as remotely-powered communications may entail short packets due to small payloads, low-latency requirements, or limited energy to support a longer transmission. Second, using a stochastic geometry framework, an analytical model is developed for characterizing the performance of wireless-powered communications in the millimeter wave (mmWave) band. The proposed model incorporates the key features of mmWave systems such as directional beamforming and sensitivity to building blockages. Finally, the power transfer efficiency and the energy efficiency of a wireless-powered communication system aided by massive MIMO is characterized. The broad goal of this dissertation is to better understand wireless-powered communications in the context of the emerging technologies for 5G.Electrical and Computer Engineerin

Resource management techniques for sustainable networks with energy harvesting nodes

Premi extraordinari doctorat UPC curs 2015-2016, àmbit Enginyeria de les TICThis dissertation proposes novel techniques for assigning resources of wireless networks by considering that the coverage radii are small, implying that some power consumption sinks not considered so far shouldnow be introduced, and by considering that the devices are battery-powered terminals provided with energy harvesting capabilities. In this framework, two different configurations in terms of harvesting capabilities are considered. First, we assume that the energy source is external and not controllable, e.g. solar energy. In this context, the proposed design should adapt to the energy that is currently being harvested. We also study the effect of having a finite backhaul connection that links the wireless access network with the core network. On the other hand, we propose a design in which the transmitter feeds actively the receivers with energy by transmitting signals that receivers use for recharging their batteries. In this case, the power transfer design should be carried out jointly with the power control strategy for users that receive information as both procedures, transfer of information and transfer of power, are implemented at the transmitter and make use of a common resource, i.e., power. Apart from techniques for assigning the radio resources, this dissertation develops a procedure for switching on and off base stations. Concerning this, it is important to notice that the traffic profile is not constant throughout the day. This is precisely the feature that can be exploited to define a strategy based on a dynamic selection of the base stations to be switched off when the traffic load is low, without affecting the quality experienced by the users. Thanks to this procedure, we are able to deploy smaller energy harvesting sources and smaller batteries and, thus, to reduce the cost of the network deployment. Finally, we derive some procedures to optimize high level decisions of the network operation in which variables from several layers of the protocol stack are involved. In this context, admission control procedures for deciding which user should be connected to which base station are studied, taking into account information of the average channel information, the current battery levels, etc. A multi-tier multi-cell scenario is assumed in which base stations belonging to different tiers have different capabilities, e.g., transmission power, battery size, end energy harvesting source size. A set of strategies that require different computational complexity are derived for scenarios with different user mobility requirements.Aquesta tesis doctoral proposa tècniques per assignar els recursos disponibles a les xarxes wireless considerant que els radis de cobertura són petits, el que implica que altres fonts de consum d’energia no considerades fins al moment s’hagin d’introduir dins els dissenys, i considerant que els dispositius estan alimentats amb bateries finites i que tenen a la seva disposició fonts de energy harvesting. En aquest context, es consideren dues configuracions diferents en funció de les capacitats de l’energia harvesting. En primer lloc, s’assumirà que la font d’energia és externa i incontrolable com, per exemple, l’energia solar. Els dissenys proposats han d’adaptar-se a l’energia que s’està recol·lectant en un precís moment. En segon lloc, es proposa un disseny en el qual el transmissor és capaç d’enviar energia als receptors mitjançant senyals de radiofreqüència dissenyats per aquest fi, energia que és utilitzada per recarregar les bateries. A part de tècniques d’assignació de recursos radio, en aquesta tesis doctoral es desenvolupa un procediment dinàmic per apagar i encendre estacions base. És important notar que el perfil de tràfic no és constant al llarg del dia. Aquest és precisament el patró que es pot explotar per definir una estratègia dinàmica per poder decidir quines estaciones base han de ser apagades, tot això sense afectar la qualitat experimentada pels usuaris. Gràcies a aquest procediment, es possible desplegar fonts d'energy harvesting més petites i bateries més petites. Finalment, aquesta tesis doctoral presenta procediments per optimitzar decisions de nivell més alt que afecten directament al funcionament global de la xarxa d’accés. Per prendre aquestes decisions, es fa ús de diverses variables que pertanyen a diferents capes de la pila de protocols. En aquest context, aquesta tesis aborda el disseny de tècniques de control d’admissió d’usuaris a estacions base en entorns amb múltiples estacions base, basant-se amb la informació estadística dels canals, i el nivell actual de les bateries, entre altres. L'escenari considerat està format per múltiples estacions base, on cada estació base pertany a una família amb diferents capacitats, per exemple, potència de transmissió o mida de la bateria. Es deriven un conjunt de tècniques amb diferents costos computacionals que són d'utilitat per a poder aplicar a escenaris amb diferents mobilitats d’usuaris.Award-winningPostprint (published version

Efficient resource allocation for 5G hybrid wireless networks

This thesis explores three directions of energy-efficiency(EE) and spectral efficiency(SE) under 5G wireless networks. Firstly, we study the optimization of power control for the small (two-user) interference channel in which the terminals are time-switched between the signal-processing and energy-harvesting phases. Both energy harvesting and signal-processing processes are during the downlink. The objective is to maximize the sum-rate, subject to the minimum data and harvested energy constraints at the receivers, assuming a fixed time-switching coefficient. The key contribution is using a geometric approach that analyzes the feasible region governed by the constraints, which gives rise to the optimal power control solution. Another topic focuses on the performance analysis of two user association schemes for wireless power transfer (WPT) in heterogeneous networks (HetNets) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas, downlink for the WPT in the first phase and uplink for wireless information transfer (WIT) in the second phase. The two user association schemes considered in the analysis are the Downlink received signal power (DRSP) based approach for maximizing the harvested energy; and the uplink received signal power (URSP) based approach for minimizing the uplink path loss. In the downlink, we adopt a low-complexity approach for massive MIMO power transfer to recharge users. Then we derive the average uplink achievable rate with the harvested energy. The last topic analyses a large-scale mmWave ad hoc network in the randomly located eavesdroppers area, where eavesdroppers can still intercept the confidential messages, since they may reside in the signal beam. This chapter explores the potential of physical layer security in mmWave ad hoc networks. Specifically, we characterize the impact of mmWave channel characteristics, random blockages, and antenna gains on the secrecy performance. For the special case of the uniform linear array (ULA), a tractable approach is proposed to evaluate the average achievable secrecy rate