Simultaneous information-and-power transfer for broadband downlink sytems

Abstract

Far-field wireless recharging based on microwave power transfer (MPT) will free mobile devices from interruption due to finite battery lives. Integrating MPT with wireless communications to support simultaneous information-and-power transfer (SIPT) allows the same spectrum to be used for dual purposes without compromising the quality of service. In this paper, we propose the novel approach of realizing SIPT in a broadband downlink system where users are assigned orthogonal frequency sub-channels and a base station transfers information and energy to users over spatially separated channels called the data and MPT channels. Optimizing the power control for such a system results in a new class of multiuser power-control problems featuring the circuit-power constraints, namely that the wirelessly transferred power must be sufficiently large for operating receiver circuits. Solving these problems gives a set of power-control algorithms that exploit channel diversity in frequency for simultaneously enhancing the throughput and MPT efficiency. For the single-user SIPT system, the optimal power allocation is shown to perform water filling in frequency with water levels for different users depending on the corresponding MPT sub-channel gains. Next, an efficient power-control algorithm is proposed for the multiuser SIPT system based on sequential scheduling of mobiles by comparing their data rates and circuit-power constraints. This algorithm is proved to be optimal for the practical scenario of highly correlated data and MPT channels.