RF Wireless Power Transfer: Regreening Future Networks

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advances in green radio communication, introducing the concept of green RF wireless power transfer and discussing its potential to make future networks more sustainable.

Contribution

It introduces the novel concept of green RF-WPT and explores its integration with emerging technologies like small-cell, mm-wave, and IoT networks for sustainable communication.

Findings

Green RF-WPT offers promising energy-efficient solutions.

Challenges and opportunities in integrating RF-WPT with future networks.

Potential for re-green future wireless communication infrastructures.

Abstract

Green radio communication is an emerging topic since the overall footprint of information and communication technology (ICT) services is predicted to triple between 2007 and 2020. Given this research line, energy harvesting (EH) and wireless power transfer (WPT) networks can be evaluated as promising approaches. In this paper, an overview of recent trends for future green networks on the platforms of EH and WPT is provided. By rethinking the application of radio frequency (RF)-WPT, a new concept, namely green RF-WTP, is introduced. Accordingly, opening challenges and promising combinations among current technologies, such as small-cell, millimeter (mm)-wave, and Internet of Things (IoT) networks, are discussed in details to seek solutions for the question with how to re-green the future networks?