Optimal Energy and Data Routing in Networks With Energy Cooperation

We consider the delay minimization problem in an energy harvesting communication network with energy cooperation. In this network, nodes harvest energy from nature to sustain the power needed for data transmission, and may transfer a portion of their harvested energies to neighboring nodes through energy cooperation. For fixed data and energy routing topologies, we determine the optimum data rates, transmit powers, and energy transfers, subject to flow and energy conservation constraints, to minimize the network delay. We start with a simplified problem where data flows are fixed and optimize energy management at each node for the case of a single energy harvest per node. This is tantamount to distributing each node’s available energy over its outgoing data links and energy transfers to neighboring nodes. For this case, with no energy cooperation, we show that each node should allocate more power to links with more noise and/or more data flow. In addition, when there is energy cooperation, our numerical results indicate that the energy is routed from nodes with lower data loads to nodes with higher data loads. We then extend this setting to the case of multiple energy harvests per node over time. In this case, we optimize each node’s energy management over its outgoing data links and its energy transfers to neighboring nodes, over multiple time slots. For this case, with no energy cooperation, we show that, for any given node, the sum of powers on the outgoing links over time is equal to the single-link optimal power over time. Finally, we consider the problem of joint flow control and energy management for the entire network. We determine the necessary conditions for joint optimality of a power control, energy transfer, and routing policy. We provide an iterative algorithm that updates the data flows, energy flows, and power distribution over outgoing data links sequentially. We show that this algorithm converges to a Pareto-optimal operating point.