SWIPT in multi-hop amplify-and-forward wireless sensor networks

ABSTRACT

Energy harvesting (EH) is an eminent solution to perpetuate the lifetime of energy-constrained relay nodes in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). This paper considers a multi-hop amplify-and-forward (AF) network in which relay nodes with EH capability harvest energy inherent in the source transmitted radio frequency (RF) signal and use the harvested energy for signal transmission. Based on the time switching and power splitting EH receiver designs, we have examined the performance of, (i) time switching based relaying (TSR) and (ii) power splitting based relaying (PSR) protocols in multi-hop AF network, with throughput as the figure of merit. The numerical analysis reveals that, PSR outperforms TSR at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) whereas TSR outperforms PSR at low SNR, in multi-hop AF-WSNs with energy harvesting.