Dynamic power allocation and scheduling for MIMO RF energy harvesting wireless sensor platforms

Abstract

Radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting systems are enabling new evolution towards charging low energy wireless devices, especially wireless sensor networks (WSN). This evolution is sparked by the development of low-energy micro-controller units (MCU). This article presents a practical multiple input multiple output (MIMO) RF energy-harvesting platform for WSN. The RF energy is sourced from a dedicated access point (AP). The sensor node is equipped with multiple antennas with diverse frequency responses. Moreover, the platform allows for simultaneous information and energy transfer without sacrificing system duplexity, unlike time-switching RF harvesting systems where data is transmitted only for a portion of the total transmission duty cycle, or power-splitting systems where the power difference between the information signal (IS) and energy signal (ES) is neglected. The proposed platform addresses the gap between those two. Furthermore, system simulation and two energy scheduling methods between AP and sensor node (SN) are presented, namely, Continuous power stream (CPS) and intermittent power stream (IPS).