Interference-aware lifetime maximization with joint routing and charging in wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Radio Frequency based Wireless power transfer (RF-WPT) has become increasingly popular in recent years. Its ability to harvest Radio Frequency (RF) energy enables a novel approach to charge low-power wireless devices, resulting in benefits to product design, usability, and reliability in wireless sensor networks (WSN). It is however known that RF-WPT also introduces interference to wireless communications, leading to poor data throughput. The joint routing and charging remains a challenging job in RF energy harvesting networks. In this paper, we take initial steps towards understanding both data routing and charger scheduling in WSNs. We propose a smart interference-aware scheduling to maximize network lifetime and avoid potential data loss caused by charging interference. Then, we theoretically prove the optimality of the proposed design, i.e., $$1 - \frac{\phi }{W}$$, where W is an arbitrary positive integer and $$\phi$$ is determined by network properties. The evaluation indicates that the proposed design can guarantee 99% optimality and significantly improve network lifetime in WSNs.