Energy Harvesting Wireless Communications: A Review of Recent Advances

Abstract

Abstract-This article summarizes recent contributions in the broad area of energy harvesting wireless communications. In particular, we provide the current state of the art for wireless networks composed of energy harvesting nodes, starting from the information-theoretic performance limits to transmission scheduling policies and resource allocation, medium access and networking issues. The emerging related area of energy transfer for self-sustaining energy harvesting wireless networks is considered in detail covering both energy cooperation aspects and simultaneous energy and information transfer. Various potential models with energy harvesting nodes at different network scales are reviewed as well as models for energy consumption at the nodes.Index Terms-Energy harvesting communications; energy cooperation; simultaneous wireless information and energy transfer.

Lifetime maximization for sensor networks with wireless energy transfer

“…The vertical axis is the probability of the WSN to be immortal, whose criterion follows Proposition 1. The line with circles, squares, and diamonds represents packet generation rate λ to be uniform randomly determined from [1,6], [1,11], and [5,15] per minute respectively. When the WSN consists of 5 sensor nodes with λ ∼ U (5, 15), the WSN can be immortal with probability about 0.9.…”

“…The results are shown in Fig. 3 (a), (b), and (c), where the packet generation rates of sensor nodes are uniform randomly chosen from [1,11], [5,15], and [10,20]. The horizontal axis is the network size, and the vertical axis is the average network lifetime.…”

“…To prolong the WSNs lifetime, energy harvesting [4], [5] is a promising technique. Energy from the environment, such as solar [6], wind [7], and vibrations [8], can be harvested by sensor nodes to charge their batteries.…”

Energy harvesting in secret key generation systems under jamming attacks

“…In the second part of duration (1 − τ )T , the legitimate users operate in SKG mode using the overall available power (including previously harvested power). Also, we assume that the harvested energy can be stored in an energy storage unit without any overflowing issues (unlimited storage) [13].…”

Bimorph piezoelectric vibration energy harvester with flexible 3D meshed-core structure for low frequency vibration

“…Meanwhile, the power supply required for the enormous number of sensor nodes is a major issue [1–3]. Thus, as a battery for self-powered sensor, energy harvesting has attracted much research attention.…”