Wireless Powered Communication: Opportunities and Challenges

The performance of wireless communication is fundamentally constrained by the limited battery life of wireless devices, the operations of which are frequently disrupted due to the need of manual battery replacement/recharging. The recent advance in RF-enabled wireless energy transfer (WET) technology provides an attractive solution named wireless powered communication (WPC), where the wireless devices are powered by dedicated wireless power transmitters to provide continuous and stable microwave energy over the air. As a key enabling technology for truly perpetual communications, WPC opens up the potential to build a network with larger throughput, higher robustness, and increased flexibility compared to its battery-powered counterpart. However, the combination of wireless energy and information transmissions also raises many new research problems and implementation issues that need to be addressed. In this article, we provide an overview of state-of-the-art RF-enabled WET technologies and their applications to wireless communications, highlighting the key design challenges, solutions, and opportunities ahead.