Performance analysis and optimisation of wireless powered decode-and-forward considering circuit power consumption

Abstract

Idle nodes are used in cooperative communications to achieve diversity gain or coverage extension. Energy harvesting (EH) allows cooperative communications to be less dependent on batteries. In this study, the performance of EH decode-and-forward relaying is analysed in terms of achievable rate for non-ideal relaying nodes whose circuit power cannot be neglected. Two time switching protocols, continuous time switching and discrete time switching, are studied. The analytical expressions for the achievable rate are derived and optimised. Numerical results show the validity of the analytical expressions and determine the influence of the circuit power consumption.