Information-Theoretic Analysis of an Energy Harvesting Communication System

In energy harvesting communication systems, an exogenous recharge process supplies energy for the data transmission and arriving energy can be buffered in a battery before consumption. Transmission is interrupted if there is not sufficient energy. We address communication with such random energy arrivals in an information-theoretic setting. Based on the classical additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel model, we study the coding problem with random energy arrivals at the transmitter. We show that the capacity of the AWGN channel with stochastic energy arrivals is equal to the capacity with an average power constraint equal to the average recharge rate. We provide two different capacity achieving schemes: {\it save-and-transmit} and {\it best-effort-transmit}. Next, we consider the case where energy arrivals have time-varying average in a larger time scale. We derive the optimal offline power allocation for maximum average throughput and provide an algorithm that finds the optimal power allocation.Comment: Published in IEEE PIMRC, September 201

GreenDelivery: Proactive Content Caching and Push with Energy-Harvesting-based Small Cells

The explosive growth of mobile multimedia traffic calls for scalable wireless access with high quality of service and low energy cost. Motivated by the emerging energy harvesting communications, and the trend of caching multimedia contents at the access edge and user terminals, we propose a paradigm-shift framework, namely GreenDelivery, enabling efficient content delivery with energy harvesting based small cells. To resolve the two-dimensional randomness of energy harvesting and content request arrivals, proactive caching and push are jointly optimized, with respect to the content popularity distribution and battery states. We thus develop a novel way of understanding the interplay between content and energy over time and space. Case studies are provided to show the substantial reduction of macro BS activities, and thus the related energy consumption from the power grid is reduced. Research issues of the proposed GreenDelivery framework are also discussed.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, accepted by IEEE Communications Magazin

RF-Powered Cognitive Radio Networks: Technical Challenges and Limitations

The increasing demand for spectral and energy efficient communication networks has spurred a great interest in energy harvesting (EH) cognitive radio networks (CRNs). Such a revolutionary technology represents a paradigm shift in the development of wireless networks, as it can simultaneously enable the efficient use of the available spectrum and the exploitation of radio frequency (RF) energy in order to reduce the reliance on traditional energy sources. This is mainly triggered by the recent advancements in microelectronics that puts forward RF energy harvesting as a plausible technique in the near future. On the other hand, it is suggested that the operation of a network relying on harvested energy needs to be redesigned to allow the network to reliably function in the long term. To this end, the aim of this survey paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the recent development and the challenges regarding the operation of CRNs powered by RF energy. In addition, the potential open issues that might be considered for the future research are also discussed in this paper.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, Accepted in IEEE Communications Magazin

Training Optimization for Energy Harvesting Communication Systems

Energy harvesting (EH) has recently emerged as an effective way to solve the lifetime challenge of wireless sensor networks, as it can continuously harvest energy from the environment. Unfortunately, it is challenging to guarantee a satisfactory short-term performance in EH communication systems because the harvested energy is sporadic. In this paper, we consider the channel training optimization problem in EH communication systems, i.e., how to obtain accurate channel state information to improve the communication performance. In contrast to conventional communication systems, the optimization of the training power and training period in EH communication systems is a coupled problem, which makes such optimization very challenging. We shall formulate the optimal training design problem for EH communication systems, and propose two solutions that adaptively adjust the training period and power based on either the instantaneous energy profile or the average energy harvesting rate. Numerical and simulation results will show that training optimization is important in EH communication systems. In particular, it will be shown that for short block lengths, training optimization is critical. In contrast, for long block lengths, the optimal training period is not too sensitive to the value of the block length nor to the energy profile. Therefore, a properly selected fixed training period value can be used.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, Globecom 201