ENERGY HARVESTING IN RELAY NETWORKS

Date: 17th August 2016

Names: Sura. Yeshwanth (16EC64R11)
Teja (16EC64R13)

and

S. Ravi

Venue:
Dept of Electronics & Electrical Communication
Engineering
(E & ECE) , Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, WB
721302, India.

What is Energy Harvesting(EH)?

ENERGY HARVESTING, OR ENERGY
SCAVENGING: it is a process that captures
small amounts of energy that would otherwise be
lost as heat, light, sound, vibration or movement
and electromagnetic waves
Large scale energy harvesting (industrial
purpose)
Examples: solar energy, wind energy, tidal
energy etc.

 Small scale energy harvesting (low powered

devices)
Examples: solar, vibration, thermal and RF
waves(energy)

RF Energy harvesting analysis

Energy source : RF energy
Performance : 0.02W/cm2 at 5Km from AM Radio to
( power density) 40W/cm2 at 10m
Weakness: Low efficiency inside a building
Strength:
Can use without limit

What is relay network?

Relay: receive and pass on (information or a
message).

Single relay model

multiple relays

Relay channel: it can be thought of as an auxiliary

channel to the direct channel between source and
destination.

Source and relay nodes may obtain

energy from energy-harvesting
resources.
There are three main EH methods:
Method 1: source and relay nodes harvest energy from
external sources such as solar, wind, or
electromechanical energy ;
Method 2: source node(s) has own fixed power supply,
and relays are equipped with batteries which harvest
energy from RF signals of source(s) ; and
Method 3: source and relay nodes have own fixed
power supplies, and there is a separate EH receiver
which allows low-powered wireless devices, e.g., in
sensor networks, in its vicinity to utilize the harvested
energy

Topics to be covered

(AF) Amplify and forward relaying protocol

(DF) Decode and forward relaying protocol
RF signal energy harvesting in the receivers and
Practical approach

 In relay networks, EH techniques have been

studied for AF relaying and DF relaying
Amplify and Forward (AF) relaying protocol:
In a AF relaying protocol , the relay simply scales
the received version and transmits an amplified
version of it to the destination.
Decode and forward (DF) relaying protocol:
In the DF relaying protocol, is for the relay to
decode the received signal, re encode it and then
retransmit it to the destination.

Amplify and forward protocol:

hs,r , hs,d , hr,d are channel
coefficients
The noise terms ns,d ,
nr,d and ns,r are modeled
as zero-mean complex
Gaussian random variables
variance
No.
xwith
is the
transmitted
information symbol
P is the transmitted power at
the received
source signals ys,d , yr,d
The
and ys,r at the destination and the
relay
function q() depends on which
processing is implemented at the
relay node.

 The signal transmitted from the relay is thus given by r ys,r

Where
Where

= r ys,r

The SNR from the source link is given by

he received signal at the destination in phase 2 according to r is given by:

where

The destination receives two copies from the signal X through

the source link and relay link
There are different techniques to combine the two signals. The
optimum technique that maximize the overall SNR is the
MRC(maximal ratio combiner).
With knowledge of the channel coefficients hs,d, hs,r, and hr,d,
the output of the MRC detector at the destination can be written
as

The SNR from the source link is given by

y= output signal received by destination

assuming that the transmitted symbol x in ys,d has average energy 1, the
stantaneous SNR of the MRC output is
Where gamma is maximum SNR
At destination
where

The Instantaneous mutual information as a function of the fading

coefficients for amplify-and-forward is given by

outage probability can be obtained by averaging over the exponential chann

distribution, as follows

Decode and forward relaying protocol:

Another processing possibility at the relay node is for the relay

to decode the received signal, re-encode it, and then retransmit it

to the receiver. This kind of relaying is termed as a decode-andforward (DF).
If the decoded signal at the relay is denoted by x, the transmitted
signal from the relay can be denoted by P x, given that x has unit
variance .
The mutual information for decode-and-forward transmission in
terms of the channel fades can be given by

 The outage probability for the fixed DF relaying scheme is given

by

SNR (dB ) vs Outage

probability

RF ENERGY SOURCES

Communication Receiver with

energy harvester

pical circuitry of RF energy harvester in receiv

SETTING THE OUTPUT VOLTAGE (VOUT):

The DC output voltage from the P2110 is preset to 3.3V. However,
it can be adjusted by adding an external resistor to increase or
decrease the output voltage using the following equations.
(=10^6)
To decrease the output voltage, place a resistor calculated by
the following equation from VSET to VOUT. The voltage can be set
to a minimum of 2.0V.
Where (=10^6)
To increase the output voltage, place a resistor calculated by
the
following equation from VSET to GND. The voltage can be set to a
maximum of 5.5V.
Where (=10^6)

Power harvester characteristics

Parameter

Minimum

RF Characteristics
Input Power RFin
Frequency

-12
902

DC Characteristics
Output Voltage
Vout
Output Current
Iout
VCAP Maximum Vmax
VCAP Minimum Vmin
Signal Strength Dout
Booster efficiency
Digital Characteristics
RESET Input High
DSET Input High
INT Output High
Temperature range

Typical

Centre
= 915
3.3

Maximum

unit

10
928

dBm
Mhz

5.5
50

V
mA
V
V
mV

1.25
1.02
275
85%
1
1.8
Vmin
-40

Vmax
+85

V
V
V

Powerharvester Efficiency
vs. RFIN (mW)

Powerharvester Efficiency
vs. Frequency

Received Signal Strength Indicator

vs. RFIN (mW)

Initial CAP Charge Time to Fir

Activation vs. RFIN (mW)

Received current vs.

distance graph

Power calculations at the RF energy

harvester reciever

Simplified Friis Equation

Input Parameters
Frequency =
915 MHz (915 for Powercast TX91501)
Wavelength =
0.328 meters
Transmitted Power Pt x Gt = 3.00 W EIRP (1.0 or 3.0 for Powercast
TX91501)
Receiver Antenna Gain =
6.00 dBi
Gr =
3.98 Linear Gain (value used in formula)
Distance R =
4.00 meters ( 1 ft = 0.3048m | 1m = 3.2808ft )
Powerharvester Component = p2110 @ 1.2V-915 Hz
Received RF Power (before conversion) - Input to Powerharvester
Pr =
0.507 mW = 507 uW = -2.95 dBm
RF-to-DC Conversion Efficiency = 46.9 %
Available DC Power (after conversion) - Output of Powerharvester
P=
0.238 mW = 238 uW
V=
1.2 V
I=
198 uA ; Charge current (I = P/V)

 Received power is determined by multiple factors:

Power of RF source
Distance from RF source
Size / performance of receiving antenna
Transmission frequency (e.g. 868MHz, 915MHz,2.5GHz and
5.8GHz)
Microwatts (W) to low mill watts(mW) of Micro-power is received.

Advantages in RF-based Wireless Power?

One to many charging

Eliminates cost to hard wire or replace batteries e.g. wireless
sensors
Sealed devices waterproof ,less expensive enclosures and
manufacturing
Zero maintenance
Placement flexibility no charging mats or charging stations
Transparent charging no user action required
Embedded power eliminate wires, cables, connectors
Reliability improved durability, reduced product failures,
eliminate ESD(Electrostatic discharge)
Conclusion: Improved Product Design, Convenience and

Usability

Applications

High-function RFID
- Sensors/Displays/Microprocessors
Battery-free wireless sensors
- Industrial Monitoring
- Smart Grid
- Defense
- Building Automation
- Oil & Gas
- Medical
Recharging
- Super capacitors
- Coin or thin-film cells
Low power electronics
- Devices that typically last for weeks, months, or years on a battery

Wireless sensors application areas

References:
1. Cooperative wireless communications textbook
by yan zhang, Hsiao-hwa chen, mohsen guizani
2. Cooperative communications and networking textbook
by - k.j.ray liu, ahmed k.sadek, weifeng su and Andres kwasinski .
http://glearning.tju.edu.cn/pluginfile.php/52933/mod_resource/content/0/references/ebooks/Cooperative_Communications_a
nd_Networking.pdf

http://www.powercastco.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/powercastco

THANK YOU

Boost converters
Reference: International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical, Electronics and
Instrumentation Energy
http://www.rroij.com/open-access/a-boost-converter-for-low-voltageapplications-through-bridgeless-circ
uit.php?aid=42524

Boost converter

Operating mode 2

Operating mode 1

Operating mode 3

Operating mode 4

Operating mode 6

Operating mode 5

For a time varying sinusoidal input voltage given at input to boost converter

Output voltage of boost converter

Rectifier used

To achieve the high efficiency in RF-to-DC conversion, the fast

switching-time diode-Schottky diode HSMS-285C
The diode has been developed for low cost and small signal
applications ( Pin <= -20 dBm)
The diode is a zero bias Schottky diode that can provide low
forward voltage ( Vf ) from 125 mV to 250 mV, 3.8 V of breakdown voltage ( Vb ), 25 Ohms of series resistance ( Rs ), and
0.18 pF of zero bias junction capacitance ( Cj0 ).

P1110 - Battery Charge Calculations

Battery Capacity
0.7 mAh
Discharge Depth
50 % (Discharge between Recharges )
Recharge Time
N/A Days
P2110 - Battery Charge Calculations (not relevant for battery-free
devices)
Battery Capacity
0.7 mAh
Battery Voltage
3.6 V (3.6 for Li-Ion Rechargeable Batteries)
Discharge Depth
50 % Discharge between Recharges
Recharge Time
0.26 Days
Note: P2110 should not be connected directly to a battery, additional
circuitry is required.