With the step growth of Internet of Things (IoT), energy-constrained wireless devices are deployed throughout our lives. Wireless powered communication network (WPCN) is a promising networking paradigm where wireless devices can be remotely powered by radio frequency (RF) enabled wireless power transfer (WPT) technology. In this chapter, we first given an overview of WPCN, which includes the research background and the recent research results. Then, we briefly discuss the main operation modes of WPCN.
Recently, wireless devices are deployed everywhere due to the development of
Internet of Things (IoT). Wireless devices are typically powered by their embedded
energy sources, e.g., batteries and supercapacitors. However, there usually exists
an energy limitation problem for the long-term operation of wireless networks due
to the limited capacities of these energy sources. Although the lifetime of wireless
networks can be extended by recharing or replacing the energy sources, but it is usually inconvenient. Radio frequency (RF)-based wireless power transfer (WPT) is a
promising technique to remotely power wireless devices, which can solve the energy
limitation problem and prolong the lifetime of wireless networks. The integration of
wireless communication networks and RF-based WPT has led to a novel networking
paradigm, i.e., wireless powered communication network (WPCN), where wireless
devices usually harvest energy from energy signals radiated by remote energy source
(such as power beacons). In the past several years, WPCN has been one of the
most hot research topics in the field of wireless communications. However, these
are still some challenges for WPCN to be practically applied in IoT, such as low
energy transmission efficiency and system throughput. The objective of this book is
to present systematical mechanisms to realize system throughput maximization for
WPCN.