Energy and data cooperation in energy harvesting multiple access channel

Abstract

We consider the energy harvesting two user Gaussian multiple access channel (MAC), where both users harvest energy from nature. The users cooperate at the physical layer (data cooperation) by establishing common messages through overheard signals and then cooperatively sending them. In addition, the users cooperate at the battery level (energy cooperation) by wirelessly transferring energy to each other. We find the jointly optimal offline transmit power and rate allocation policy together with the energy transfer policy that maximizes the departure region. We provide necessary conditions for energy transfer, and prove some properties of the optimal transmit policy, thereby shedding some light on the interplay between energy and data cooperation.