Toward the Evolution of Wireless Powered Communication Networks for the Future Internet of Things

With the ever-increasing speed of technological advances, more and more objects are being connected to the Internet every day and the world is moving toward the next generation of the Internet, the so called Internet of Things (IoT). However, numerous challenges need to be addressed for the widespread adoption of the IoT paradigm. Energy scarcity is one of these challenges. Recently, the advent of energy harvesting has relaxed energy limitation concerns. Specifically, RF energy harvesting has attracted a large amount of research due to its clear advantages over other energy harvesting methods. Lately, the extensive research in the RF energy harvesting domain has led to the emergence of wireless powered communication networks (WPCNs), where energy-constrained users are powered by wireless energy transfer of an integrated energy and information access point referred to as a hybrid access point (HAP). In this article, we review the research conducted in the field of WPCN and discuss opportunities for further extensions of these networks. Looking from the IoT point of view, we also present some of the points that must be taken into account for impeccable operation of WPCN in the IoT environment.