Broadcast Approach for the Single-User Energy Harvesting Channel

• Published in: IEEE transactions on communications 2019-05, Vol.67 (5), p.3192-3204
• Main Authors: Zohdy, Maha, Tajer, Ali
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Algorithms; broadcast approach; Broadcasting; Economic models; Energy harvesting; Energy transmission; Fading; Fading channels; no CSIT; Optimization; Radio transmitters; Receivers; Reliability; Resource management; slowly fading channel; Transmitters
• ISSN: 0090-6778; 1558-0857
• DOI: 10.1109/TCOMM.2019.2895346

This paper proposes a broadcast strategy for the single-user slowly fading channel in which the transmission power is supplied by an energy harvesting unit. In this strategy, the channel state information (CSI) is known only to the receiver, and the transmitter is assumed to be oblivious to the CSI. The broadcast approach enables preventing outage events in the face of the lack of CSI at the transmitter. In the proposed broadcast approach, the transmitter splits its message into multiple superimposed information layers. This facilitates sustaining reliably decodable transmission rates adapted to the unknown state of the randomly-varying fading state of the channel. The objective is to characterize the optimal allocation of the randomly varying harvested power over time and across information layers in the contexts of maximizing the average communication rate and minimizing the likelihood of outage. First, the setting in which the transmitter has non-causal and complete information about the state of the energy harvesting process is considered. A closed-form characterization of the optimal allocation of power across layers is established, and an algorithm that analytically determines the exact optimal allocation of power over time is provided. Furthermore, an online algorithm is proposed for a setting in which the energy harvesting process is known only causally to the transmitter.