Conventional energy-constrained wireless systems such as sensor networks are powered by batteries and have a limited lifetime. Wireless power transfer (WPT) is a promising technology for energy-sustainable networks, where terminals can harvest energy from dedicated electromagnetic radiation through appropriate electronic circuits. The integration of WPT technology into communication networks introduces a fundamental co-existence of information and energy flows; radio-frequency signals are used in order to convey information and/or energy. The efficient management of these two flows through sophisticated networking protocols, signal processing/communication techniques, and network architectures, gives rise to a new communication paradigm called wireless-powered communications (WPC). In this talk, we discuss the principles of WPC and we highlight its main network architectures as well as the fundamental trade-off between information and energy transfer. By following a bottom-up cross-layer approach, several examples, that deal with the fundamentals of WPC as well as its integration in modern communication systems, are presented. Specifically, we deal with circuit models for WPT, information-theoretic limits, signal processing aspects, and waveform design, system-level analysis by using stochastic geometry tools. Future research directions and challenges are also pointed out.
Ioannis Krikidis (F’19) received a diploma in Computer Engineering from the Computer Engineering and Informatics Department (CEID) of the University of Patras, Greece, in 2000, and the M.Sc and Ph.D. degrees from Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications (ENST), Paris, France, in 2001 and 2005, respectively, all in electrical engineering. He is currently an Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus. His current research interests include wireless communications, 6G communication systems, wireless-powered communications, fluid-antenna systems, quantum information processing.