Chair: Deniz Gunduz, Imperial College London, UK, Email: d.gunduz@imperial.ac.uk

Vice-Chair: Dusit Niyato, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Email: dniyato@ntu.edu.sg

Vice-Chair: Kaibin Huang, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Email: huangkb@eee.hku.hk

Vice-Chair: Leonardo Badia, University of Padova, Italy, Email: leonardo.badia@gmail.com

Advisor: Sennur Ulukus, University of Maryland, USA

Advisor and Former Chair: Xiangyun Zhou, The Australian National University, Australia

LinkedIn discussion site:

https://www.linkedin.com/grp/home?gid=4673300

To become a member of the SIG:

Please send an email to Deniz Gunduz (d.gunduz@imperial.ac.uk) with your CV

Scope and Objectives:

Over the last decade, interest in energy harvesting has increased because of its environmental friendliness, as well as its ability to power devices without power supply from the electrical grid; extend the life of batteries (or eliminate them entirely); reduce the maintenance cost; and most importantly eliminate the need to replace batteries in impossible-to-reach sensors such as within the body or walls. Energy harvesting becomes a promising technology that enables smart cities, wide-area rural communications, and next generation machine-to-machine (M2M) communications.

This SIG focuses on communication networks powered by energy harvesting. The impact of energy harvesting on the design of communication protocols and communication network architectures is of particular interest. One of the key focuses is on wireless sensor networks (WSN), because of its ultra-low-power operation. Such small, wireless, autonomous sensors can be powered by harvesting energy from the ambient environment on the order of milliwatts or even microwatts. If these wireless sensors, which spread throughout a home, a factory, or even outdoor to monitor all kind of environmental conditions, are powered by energy harvesting, there are no batteries to replace and no labour costs associated with replacing them, in other words, self-sustainable. However, the design of communications in the WSN has to take into account the time-varying and often unpredictable nature of the amount of energy arrival.

In a cellular network, energy harvesting can be used to provide power in many elements of the network, saving considerable costs in electricity supply and providing low maintenance monitoring. Powering macrocell, picocell or femtocell base stations with wind or solar power allows the cellular network to expand beyond the limits of the power grid, improve the energy efficiency and reduce the costs. The possibility of re-distribution of the renewable energy in smart grids allows further efficient utilization. But all such innovative and green power solutions lead to many challenges in the design of the communication system yet to be fully addressed.

Another important focus of this SIG is on RF energy harvesting and wireless power transfer. RF energy is currently broadcasted from billions of radio transmitters around the world, including cellular base stations, WiFi access points, and television/radio broadcast stations. The ability to harvest RF energy, from ambient or dedicated sources, enables wireless charging of low-power devices and has significant benefits to product design, usability, and reliability. The use of dedicated RF power sources that can be jointly controlled by the communication network is particularly an interest field of research because the wireless power transfer and communication protocol can potentially be jointly designed and optimized.

The research interests of the SIG go beyond communication networks and cover other energy harvesting relevant mechanisms, approaches, systems, and networks. The research expertise developed in the communication theory and network theory can be applied to model and design energy harvesting systems and networks. For example, many of the advanced signal processing techniques that are developed for wireless data transmission can be borrowed to design advanced and high-efficiency wireless power transfer system.

This SIG also supports relevant industrial standardization efforts.

The main sub-areas of interest include, but not limited to:

  • Communication and networking devices and equipment powered by energy harvesting;
  • Energy-harvesting and energy-efficient machine-to-machine communications;
  • Low-power and energy-harvesting wireless sensor networks;
  • RF powered backscattered communications, e.g., RFID;
  • Green and energy-efficient design of cellular networks powered by energy harvesting;
  • Energy-harvesting principles, mechanisms, approaches, devices, and systems;
  • Wireless power transfer and wirelessly powered communications;
  • Energy cooperation, storage, and recycling;
  • Relevant implementations and prototypes;
  • Relevant standardizations and regulations.

Recent Technical Activities

Former Leadership (SIG on Energy Harvesting Communications)

10/2015 – 10/2017

Chair: Xiangyun Zhou, The Australian National University, Australia

Vice-Chair: Dusit Niyato, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Vice-Chair: Kaibin Huang, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Vice-Chair: Deniz Gunduz, Imperial College London, UK

Advisor: Aylin Yener, Pennsylvania State University, USA

Advisor and Former Chair: Chau Yuen, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore

01/2013 – 10/2015

Chair: Chau Yuen, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore

Vice-Chair: Lei Shu, Guangdong University of Petrochemical University

Vice-Chair: Chin Keong Ho, Institute for Infocomm Research, Singapore

Vice-Chair: Woon Hau Chin, Toshiba Research Europe Limited, UK

Advisor: Hsiao-Hwa Chen, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan

SIG Members

  1. Jiming Chen, Zhejiang University, China
  2. Woon Hau Chin, Toshiba Research Lab Europe Limited, UK
  3. Trung Q. Duong, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden
  4. Maged Elkashlan, University of London, UK
  5. Guangjie Han, Hohai University, China
  6. Chin Keong Ho, Institute for Infocomm Research, Singapore
  7. Qingyang (Rose) Hu, Utah State University, USA 
  8. Jingon Joung, Institute for Infocomm Research, Singapore
  9. Dong Ku Kim, Yonsei University, Korea
  10. Hai Lin, Osaka Prefecture University, Japan
  11. Jaime Lloret Mauri, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain
  12. Chih-Lin I, China Mobile Research Institute, China
  13. Rangarao Venkatesha Prasad, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
  14. Chandra Murthy, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
  15. Deniz Gunduz, Imperial College London, UK
  16. Jianwei Niu, Beihang University, China
  17. Derrick Wing Kwan Ng, University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
  18. Joel Rodrigues, University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal
  19. Yuexin Peng, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China
  20. Yi Qian, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA
  21. Kei Sakaguchi, Osaka University, Japan
  22. Lei Shu, Guangdong University of Petrochemical Technology, China
  23. Lingyang Song, Peking University, China
  24. Dusit Niyato, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
  25. Sumei Sun, Institute for Infocomm Research, Singapore. 
  26. Himal Suraweera, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
  27. Sennur Ulukus, University of Maryland, USA
  28. Jinsong Wu, Bell Laboratories, China 
  29. Chau Yuen, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore
  30. Rui Zhang, National University of Singapore, Singapore
  31. Kaibin Huang, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  32. Yan Zhang, Simula Research Lab, Norway
  33. Xiangyun (Sean) Zhou, Australian National University, Australia
  34. Zhaoyang Zhang, Zhejiang University, China
  35. Maryline Chetto, University of Nantes, France
  36. Aylin Yener, Pennsylvania State University, USA
  37. Zhangbing Zhou, China University of Geoscience (Beijing), China
  38. Jun Zhang, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong
  39. Martin Haardt, TU Ilmenau, Germany
  40. Winston Seah, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
  41. Sheng Zhou, Tsinghua University, China
  42. Leonardo Badia, University of Padova, Italy

 

Please contact Xiangyun Zhou (xiangyun.zhou@anu.edu.au) if your information above is outdated.