Energy Harvesting for Secure OFDMA Systems

Energy harvesting and physical-layer security in wireless networks are of great significance. In this paper, we study the simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) in downlink orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, where each user applies power splitting to coordinate the energy harvesting and information decoding processes while secrecy information requirement is guaranteed. The problem is formulated to maximize the aggregate harvested power at the users while satisfying secrecy rate requirements of all users by subcarrier allocation and the optimal power splitting ratio selection. Due to the NP-hardness of the problem, we propose an efficient iterative algorithm. The numerical results show that the proposed method outperforms conventional methods.Comment: Accepted by WCSP 201

DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION OF SIMULTANEOUS WIRELESS INFORMATION AND POWER TRANSFER SYSTEMS

The recent trends in the domain of wireless communications indicate severe upcoming challenges, both in terms of infrastructure as well as design of novel techniques. On the other hand, the world population keeps witnessing or hearing about new generations of mobile/wireless technologies within every half to one decade. It is certain the wireless communication systems have enabled the exchange of information without any physical cable(s), however, the dependence of the mobile devices on the power cables still persist. Each passing year unveils several critical challenges related to the increasing capacity and performance needs, power optimization at complex hardware circuitries, mobility of the users, and demand for even better energy efficiency algorithms at the wireless devices. Moreover, an additional issue is raised in the form of continuous battery drainage at these limited-power devices for sufficing their assertive demands. In this regard, optimal performance at any device is heavily constrained by either wired, or an inductive based wireless recharging of the equipment on a continuous basis. This process is very inconvenient and such a problem is foreseen to persist in future, irrespective of the wireless communication method used. Recently, a promising idea for simultaneous wireless radio-frequency (RF) transmission of information and energy came into spotlight during the last decade. This technique does not only guarantee a more flexible recharging alternative, but also ensures its co-existence with any of the existing (RF-based) or alternatively proposed methods of wireless communications, such as visible light communications (VLC) (e.g., Light Fidelity (Li-Fi)), optical communications (e.g., LASER-equipped communication systems), and far-envisioned quantum-based communication systems. In addition, this scheme is expected to cater to the needs of many current and future technologies like wearable devices, sensors used in hazardous areas, 5G and beyond, etc. This Thesis presents a detailed investigation of several interesting scenarios in this direction, specifically concerning design and optimization of such RF-based power transfer systems. The first chapter of this Thesis provides a detailed overview of the considered topic, which serves as the foundation step. The details include the highlights about its main contributions, discussion about the adopted mathematical (optimization) tools, and further refined minutiae about its organization. Following this, a detailed survey on the wireless power transmission (WPT) techniques is provided, which includes the discussion about historical developments of WPT comprising its present forms, consideration of WPT with wireless communications, and its compatibility with the existing techniques. Moreover, a review on various types of RF energy harvesting (EH) modules is incorporated, along with a brief and general overview on the system modeling, the modeling assumptions, and recent industrial considerations. Furthermore, this Thesis work has been divided into three main research topics, as follows. Firstly, the notion of simultaneous wireless information and power transmission (SWIPT) is investigated in conjunction with the cooperative systems framework consisting of single source, multiple relays and multiple users. In this context, several interesting aspects like relay selection, multi-carrier, and resource allocation are considered, along with problem formulations dealing with either maximization of throughput, maximization of harvested energy, or both. Secondly, this Thesis builds up on the idea of transmit precoder design for wireless multigroup multicasting systems in conjunction with SWIPT. Herein, the advantages of adopting separate multicasting and energy precoder designs are illustrated, where we investigate the benefits of multiple antenna transmitters by exploiting the similarities between broadcasting information and wirelessly transferring power. The proposed design does not only facilitates the SWIPT mechanism, but may also serve as a potential candidate to complement the separate waveform designing mechanism with exclusive RF signals meant for information and power transmissions, respectively. Lastly, a novel mechanism is developed to establish a relationship between the SWIPT and cache-enabled cooperative systems. In this direction, benefits of adopting the SWIPT-caching framework are illustrated, with special emphasis on an enhanced rate-energy (R-E) trade-off in contrast to the traditional SWIPT systems. The common notion in the context of SWIPT revolves around the transmission of information, and storage of power. In this vein, the proposed work investigates the system wherein both information and power can be transmitted and stored. The Thesis finally concludes with insights on the future directions and open research challenges associated with the considered framework

Resource Allocation and Relay Selection for Multi-User OFDM-Based Cooperative Networks with SWIPT

In this paper, we investigate resource allocation and relay selection in a two-hop relay-assisted multi-user network, where the end users support Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer (SWIPT). In particular, we consider single source assisted by a set of spatially distributed relays able to amplify-and-forward orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals carrying both data and power at the same time. The users are assumed to implement a power splitting technique where the received signal is orthogonally split in two streams of different power levels, where one signal stream is sent to the power harvesting module while the other is converted to baseband for information decoding. We aim at optimizing the users’ power splitting ratios as well as the relay, carrier and power assignment so that the end-users’ sum-rate is maximized subject to transmitted and harvested power constraints. Such joint optimization is combinatorial in nature with a non-convex structure. Therefore, we present a sub-optimal low complex solution based on the harmonic mean of the two-hop relay channel coefficients. Simulation results reveal that the proposed algorithm provides significant performance gains in comparison with a semi-random resource allocation and relay selection approach

Sequential Resource Distribution Technique for Multi-User OFDM-SWIPT based Cooperative Networks

In this paper, we investigate resource allocation and relay selection in a dual-hop orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based multi-user network where amplify-and-forward (AF) enabled relays facilitate simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) to the end-users. In this context, we address an optimization problem to maximize the end-users’ sum-rate subjected to transmit power and harvested energy constraints. Furthermore, the problem is formulated for both time-switching (TS) and power-splitting (PS) SWIPT schemes.We aim at optimizing the users’ SWIPT splitting factors as well as sub-carrier–destination assignment, sub-carrier pairing, and relay–destination coupling metrics. This kind of joint evaluation is combinatorial in nature with non-linear structure involving mixed-integer programming. In this vein, we propose a sub-optimal low complex sequential resource distribution (SRD) method to solve the aforementioned problem. The performance of the proposed SRD technique is compared with a semi-random resource allocation and relay selection approach. Simulation results reveal the benefits of the proposed design under several parameter values with various operating conditions to illustrate the efficiency of SWIPT schemes for the proposed techniques

Relay Selection and Resource Allocation for SWIPT in Multi-User OFDMA Systems

We investigate the resource allocation and relay selection in a two-hop relay-assisted multi-user Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) network, where the end-nodes support Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer (SWIPT) employing a Power Splitting (PS) technique. Our goal is to optimize the end-nodes’ power splitting ratios as well as the relay, carrier and power assignment so that the sum-rate of the system is maximized subject to harvested energy and transmitted power constraints. Such joint optimization with mixed integer non-linear programming structure is combinatorial in nature. Due to the complexity of this problem, we propose to solve its dual problem which guarantees asymptotic optimality and less execution time compared to a highly-complex exhaustive search approach. Furthermore, we also present a heuristic method to solve this problem with lower computational complexity. Simulation results reveal that the proposed algorithms provide significant performance gains compared to a semi-random resource allocation and relay selection approach and close to the optimal solution when the number of OFDMA sub-carriers is sufficiently large