Optimal energy requesting strategy for RF-based energy harvesting wireless communications

Abstract

Energy harvesting is emerging as a promising alternative source to power the next generation of wireless networks. This paper introduces a new energy harvesting strategy that uses a dedicated energy source to optimally replenish energy for radio frequency (RF) based wireless communication systems. Specifically, we develop a two-step dual tunnel energy requesting (DTER) strategy that allows an energy harvesting device to effectively obtain energy from a dedicated energy source. While minimizing the system energy consumption, DTER takes into account the practical constraints on both the energy source and the energy harvesting device. Additionally, the overhead issue and the charge characteristics of an energy storage component are examined to make the proposed strategy practical. To solve the nonlinear optimization problem in DTER, we convert the design of optimal energy requesting problem into a classic shortest path problem and thus enable us to find a global optimal solution through dynamic programming algorithms. Theoretical analysis and simulation study verify that DTER outperforms two other schemes in the literature.