Time-Switching Energy Harvesting Communications: Harvesting Beneficialness and Performance Evaluation

This paper focuses on the performance analysis of point-to-point communication, where the source node is powered with a fixed-power battery as well as a harvest-use battery. A time-switching scheme is implemented such that in each time frame the source either harvests energy or sends information to the destination node. Since switching takes place within a communication time frame, energy harvesting may not necessarily be beneficial in terms of improving the maximum achievable spectral efficiency or the energy efficiency of the communication system. Here, we investigate and provide conditions under which harvesting can improve the system performance. We consider a scenario where the transmit power from the fixed battery is constant. Closed-form expressions for the conditions under which energy harvesting is proven beneficial are provided. The effects of important parameters, namely, time switching parameter, circuit powers, and harvested energy, on the system performance and on the condition for harvesting beneficialness, are investigated and discussed.