Safe and Secure Wireless Power Transfer Networks: Challenges and Opportunities in RF-Based Systems

TL;DR

This paper discusses the security and safety challenges in RF-based wireless power transfer networks, emphasizing their importance for reliable operation and exploring future research opportunities.

Contribution

It highlights the often-overlooked safety and security issues in WPTNs and provides an overview of potential research directions in this emerging field.

Findings

Security and safety are critical for WPTN deployment.

Current research mainly focuses on power transfer efficiency.

Identifies key challenges and opportunities for future work.

Abstract

RF-based wireless power transfer networks (WPTNs) are deployed to transfer power to embedded devices over the air via RF waves. Up until now, a considerable amount of effort has been devoted by researchers to design WPTNs that maximize several objectives such as harvested power, energy outage and charging delay. However, inherent security and safety issues are generally overlooked and these need to be solved if WPTNs are to be become widespread. This article focuses on safety and security problems related WPTNs and highlight their cruciality in terms of efficient and dependable operation of RF-based WPTNs. We provide a overview of new research opportunities in this emerging domain.