Energy Harvesting Wireless Communication Networks

Authors: Dr. Aylin Yener

Source: FERMAT, Volume 11, Communications 2, Sep_Oct, 2015


Abstract: Wireless communication networks composed of devices that can harvest energy from nature will lead to the green future of wireless, as energy harvesting offers the possibility of perpetual network operation without adverse effects on the environment. By developing effective and robust communication techniques to be used under energy harvesting conditions, some of the communication devices and networks can even be taken off the grid. Energy harvesting brings new considerations, most notably, intermittency of available energy and its temporary storage, to system level design of wireless communication networks, leading to new insights. On the information theory front, these considerations lead to new problem settings.

The goal of this talk is to furnish the audience with fundamental design principles of energy harvesting wireless communication networks established in our recent work. The focus will be on identifying optimum transmission scheduling policies in various settings, the ensuing algorithmic solutions leading to design insights. Time permitting, recent results on information theoretic limits will also be presented.

Keywords: Energy Harvesting, Wireless Communication Networks.


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Energy Harvesting Wireless Communication Networks