Recent Advances in Joint Wireless Energy and Information Transfer

In this paper, we provide an overview of the recent advances in microwave-enabled wireless energy transfer (WET) technologies and their applications in wireless communications. Specifically, we divide our discussions into three parts. First, we introduce the state-of-the-art WET technologies and the signal processing techniques to maximize the energy transfer efficiency. Then, we discuss an interesting paradigm named simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT), where energy and information are jointly transmitted using the same radio waveform. At last, we review the recent progress in wireless powered communication networks (WPCN), where wireless devices communicate using the power harvested by means of WET. Extensions and future directions are also discussed in each of these areas.Comment: Conference submission accepted by ITW 201

Joint Wireless Information and Energy Transfer in a K-User MIMO Interference Channel

Recently, joint wireless information and energy transfer (JWIET) methods have been proposed to relieve the battery limitation of wireless devices. However, the JWIET in a general K-user MIMO interference channel (IFC) has been unexplored so far. In this paper, we investigate for the first time the JWIET in K-user MIMO IFC, in which receivers either decode the incoming information data (information decoding, ID) or harvest the RF energy (energy harvesting, EH). In the K-user IFC, we consider three different scenarios according to the receiver mode -- i) multiple EH receivers and a single ID receiver, ii) multiple IDs and a single EH, and iii) multiple IDs and multiple EHs. For all scenarios, we have found a common necessary condition of the optimal transmission strategy and, accordingly, developed the transmission strategy that satisfies the common necessary condition, in which all the transmitters transferring energy exploit a rank-one energy beamforming. Furthermore, we have also proposed an iterative algorithm to optimize the covariance matrices of the transmitters that transfer information and the powers of the energy beamforming transmitters simultaneously, and identified the corresponding achievable rate-energy tradeoff region. Finally, we have shown that by selecting EH receivers according to their signal-to-leakage-and-harvested energy-ratio (SLER), we can improve the achievable rate-energy region further.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1303.169

Joint Transceiver Design Algorithms for Multiuser MISO Relay Systems with Energy Harvesting

In this paper, we investigate a multiuser relay system with simultaneous wireless information and power transfer. Assuming that both base station (BS) and relay station (RS) are equipped with multiple antennas, this work studies the joint transceiver design problem for the BS beamforming vectors, the RS amplify-and-forward transformation matrix and the power splitting (PS) ratios at the single-antenna receivers. Firstly, an iterative algorithm based on alternating optimization (AO) and with guaranteed convergence is proposed to successively optimize the transceiver coefficients. Secondly, a novel design scheme based on switched relaying (SR) is proposed that can significantly reduce the computational complexity and overhead of the AO based designs while maintaining a similar performance. In the proposed SR scheme, the RS is equipped with a codebook of permutation matrices. For each permutation matrix, a latent transceiver is designed which consists of BS beamforming vectors, optimally scaled RS permutation matrix and receiver PS ratios. For the given CSI, the optimal transceiver with the lowest total power consumption is selected for transmission. We propose a concave-convex procedure based and subgradient-type iterative algorithms for the non-robust and robust latent transceiver designs. Simulation results are presented to validate the effectiveness of all the proposed algorithms

Wireless information and power transfer: from scientific hypothesis to engineering practice

Recently, there has been substantial research interest in the subject of Simultaneous Wireless Information andPower Transfer (SWIPT) owing to its cross-disciplinary appeal and its wide-ranging application potential, whichmotivates this overview. More explicitly, we provide a brief survey of the state-of-the-art and introduce severalpractical transceiver architectures that may facilitate its implementation. Moreover, the most important link-levelas well as system-level design aspects are elaborated on, along with a variety of potential solutions and researchideas. We envision that the dual interpretation of Radio Frequency (RF) signals creates new opportunities as wellas challenges requiring substantial research, innovation and engineering efforts

Massive MIMO is a Reality -- What is Next? Five Promising Research Directions for Antenna Arrays

Massive MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) is no longer a "wild" or "promising" concept for future cellular networks - in 2018 it became a reality. Base stations (BSs) with 64 fully digital transceiver chains were commercially deployed in several countries, the key ingredients of Massive MIMO have made it into the 5G standard, the signal processing methods required to achieve unprecedented spectral efficiency have been developed, and the limitation due to pilot contamination has been resolved. Even the development of fully digital Massive MIMO arrays for mmWave frequencies - once viewed prohibitively complicated and costly - is well underway. In a few years, Massive MIMO with fully digital transceivers will be a mainstream feature at both sub-6 GHz and mmWave frequencies. In this paper, we explain how the first chapter of the Massive MIMO research saga has come to an end, while the story has just begun. The coming wide-scale deployment of BSs with massive antenna arrays opens the door to a brand new world where spatial processing capabilities are omnipresent. In addition to mobile broadband services, the antennas can be used for other communication applications, such as low-power machine-type or ultra-reliable communications, as well as non-communication applications such as radar, sensing and positioning. We outline five new Massive MIMO related research directions: Extremely large aperture arrays, Holographic Massive MIMO, Six-dimensional positioning, Large-scale MIMO radar, and Intelligent Massive MIMO.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Digital Signal Processin