Application of Smart Antenna Technologies in Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer

TL;DR

This paper explores how advanced smart antenna technologies like MIMO and relaying can enhance the efficiency and performance of simultaneous wireless information and power transfer systems, addressing energy constraints in wireless networks.

Contribution

It investigates the application of smart antenna techniques to SWIPT, proposing solutions to improve energy and spectral efficiency while balancing system complexity.

Findings

Smart antennas significantly boost SWIPT energy efficiency

Network topologies with multiple users improve system performance

Trade-offs between complexity and efficiency are identified

Abstract

Simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) is a promising solution to increase the lifetime of wireless nodes and hence alleviate the energy bottleneck of energy constrained wireless networks. As an alternative to conventional energy harvesting techniques, SWIPT relies on the use of radio frequency signals, and is expected to bring some fundamental changes to the design of wireless communication networks. This article focuses on the application of advanced smart antenna technologies, including multiple-input multiple-output and relaying techniques, to SWIPT. These smart antenna technologies have the potential to significantly improve the energy efficiency and also the spectral efficiency of SWIPT. Different network topologies with single and multiple users are investigated, along with some promising solutions to achieve a favorable trade-off between system performance and complexity. A detailed discussion of future research challenges for the design of SWIPT systems is also provided.