Jointly Broadcasting Data and Power with Quality of Service Guarantees

In this work, we consider a scenario wherein an energy harvesting wireless radio equipment sends information to multiple receivers alongside powering them. In addition to harvesting the incoming radio frequency (RF) energy, the receivers also harvest energy from {its environment (e.g., solar energy)}. This communication framework is captured by a fading Gaussian Broadcast Channel (GBC) with energy harvesting transmitter and receivers. In order to ensure {some quality of service (QoS)} in data reception among the receivers, we impose a $\mathit{\text{minimum-rate}}$ requirement on data transmission. For the setting in place, we characterize the fundamental limits in jointly transmitting information and power subject to a QoS guarantee, for three cardinal receiver structures namely, $\mathit{\text{ideal}}$, $\mathit{\text{time-switching}}$ and $\mathit{\text{power-splitting}}$. We show that a time-switching receiver can {switch} between {information reception mode} and {energy harvesting mode}, $\mathit{\text{without}}$ the transmitter’s knowledge of the same and $\mathit{\text{without}}$ any extra $\mathit{\text{rate}}\mathit{\text{loss}}$. We also prove that, for the same amount of power transferred, on average, a power-splitting receiver supports higher data rates compared to a time-switching receiver.