Power Beacon-Assisted Millimeter Wave Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract

Deployment of low-cost power beacons (PBs) is a promising solution for dedicated wireless power transfer (WPT) in future wireless networks. In this paper, we present a tractable model for PB-assisted millimeter wave (mmWave) wireless ad hoc networks, where each transmitter (TX) harvests energy from all PBs and then uses the harvested energy to transmit information to its desired receiver. Our model accounts for realistic aspects of WPT and mmWave transmissions, such as power circuit activation threshold, allowed maximum harvested power, maximum transmit power, beamforming, and blockage. Using stochastic geometry, we obtain the Laplace transform of the aggregate received power at the TX to calculate the power coverage probability. We approximate and discretize the transmit power of each TX into a finite number of discrete power levels in log scale to compute the channel and total coverage probability. We compare our analytical predictions to simulations and observe good accuracy. The proposed model allows insights into effect of system parameters, such as transmit power of PBs, PB density, main lobe beamwidth, and power circuit activation threshold on the overall coverage probability. The results confirm that it is feasible and safe to power TXs in an mmWave ad hoc network using PBs.