On the Transfer of Information and Energy in Multi-User Systems

TL;DR

This paper investigates how energy transfer constraints influence the design and coordination of multi-user wireless systems, using information theory to analyze multiple access and multi-hop channels.

Contribution

It extends the study of joint information and energy transfer to multi-user systems, highlighting the need for enhanced coordination among distributed nodes.

Findings

Energy transfer constraints require additional coordination among nodes.

Information theoretic analysis reveals new design considerations.

Examples illustrate the impact on multi-user channel strategies.

Abstract

The problem of joint transfer of information and energy for wireless links has been recently investigated in light of emerging applications such as RFID and body area networks. Specifically, recent work has shown that the additional requirements of providing sufficient energy to the receiver significantly affects the design of the optimal communication strategy. In contrast to most previous works, this letter focuses on baseline multi-user systems, namely multiple access and multi-hop channels, and demonstrates that energy transfer constraints call for additional coordination among distributed nodes of a wireless network. The analysis is carried out using information theoretic tools, and specific examples are worked out to illustrate the main conclusions.