D2Dwith Energy Harvesting Capabilities

Abstract

Device‐to‐device (D2D) communication is envisioned as a key enabling technology for fifth‐generation (5G) wireless systems and the Internet of Things (IoT). D2D promises increased resource utilization, throughput, and coverage, and decreased delays and power consumption, by offloading traffic from the centralized infrastructure to autonomous direct device‐to‐device transmissions. With the rise of D2D and IoT, which comprise typically small, battery‐powered devices, it is essential to consider the energy efficiency and sustainability of future D2D networks. Energy harvesting (EH) has emerged as a promising green and sustainable energy solution for D2D and IoT. EH technologies represent harnessing energy from ambient renewable energy sources and converting the harvested environmental energy into usable electrical energy via wireless power transfer (WPT) technologies. Among various renewable sources, radio frequency (RF) signals are more reliable and allow for simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT), and therefore are of particular interest. EH‐aided D2D communication raises new resource allocation and interference management considerations nonexistent in conventional D2D communication, since cochannel interference, a main performance‐limiting factor in underlaid D2D networks, could be converted into useful energy. Issues such as power allocation/control, beamforming design, time allocation, and spectrum allocation, with the consideration of EH‐empowered D2D devices, have been investigated for EH‐aided D2D networks.