Performance analysis of wireless sensor transmission with RF energy harvesting

Abstract

For wireless devices, which are commonly powered using batteries, energy becomes a severe bottleneck. Many efforts have been spent on the efficient use of battery energy. Recently, an alternative has been explored for prolonging the lifetime of energy constrained wireless networks and low-power wireless sensor networks. This alternative operates by availing the ambient radio-frequency (RF) signal, where energy harvesting (EH) and information transmission processes can simultaneously take place. EH has emerged as a promising technique for green communications, as it can power communication systems with renewable energy. In this paper, we investigate the performance of overlaid wireless sensor transmission powered from existing wireless system by RF-EH. More specifically, we first propose a new transmission strategy, and we derive the exact closed-form expression for the distribution function of harvested energy over one coherence time over Rayleigh fading channels. Second, we derive the expressions of average packet loss, average packet delay and average consumed power of sensor transmission subject to interference from existing system. Finally, numerical results are used to confirm the analytical expression, and to validate the performances of the proposed strategy when compared to existent transmission strategies. 2016 IEEE.