On the Performance of Multi-Antenna Wireless-Powered Communications with Energy Beamforming

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the average throughput of multi-antenna wireless-powered communication networks using energy beamforming, deriving closed-form and asymptotic expressions, and optimizing energy harvesting time for maximum throughput.

Contribution

It provides the first closed-form and asymptotic throughput expressions for multi-antenna WPCNs with energy beamforming and optimizes harvesting time at high SNR.

Findings

Throughput increases with AP transmit power and number of antennas.

Optimal energy harvesting time maximizes system throughput.

Analytical results validated by numerical simulations.

Abstract

In this paper, we study the average throughput performance of energy beamforming in a multi-antenna wireless-powered communication network (WPCN). The considered network consists of one hybrid access-point (AP) with multiple antennas and a single antenna user. The user does not have constant power supply and thus needs to harvest energy from the signals broadcast by the AP in the downlink (DL), before sending its data back to the AP with the harvested energy in the uplink (UL). We derive closed-form expressions of the average throughput and their asymptotic expressions at high SNR for both delay-limited and delay-tolerant transmission modes. The optimal DL energy harvesting time, which maximizes the system throughput, is then obtained for high SNR. All analytical expressions are validated by numerical simulations. The impact of various parameters, such as the AP transmit power, the energy harvesting time, and the number of antennas, on the system throughput is also investigated.