System trade-offs in point-to-point energy harvesting wireless networks with finite size batteries and buffers

Abstract

In this paper, we study the effects of finite size resources in point-to-point energy harvesting wireless networks. We consider a transmitter and a receiver with finite size buffers and batteries, both powered by energy harvesters. We use a discrete-time analysis technique to study total packet loss at the transmitter and receiver when both are constrained by finite resources. We show how resources at the transmitter can be traded off with resources at the receiver to achieve best performance. We characterize the benefits of feedback and show that feedback is beneficial at smaller battery and buffer sizes, and when the energy harvested is highly varying.