Multi-objective beamforming for energy-efficient SWIPT systems

In this paper, we study the resource allocation algorithm design for energy-efficient simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) systems. The considered system comprises a transmitter, an information receiver, and multiple energy harvesting receivers equipped with multiple antennas. We propose a multi-objective optimization framework to study the trade-off between the maximization of the energy efficiency of information transmission and the maximization of wireless power transfer efficiency. The proposed problem formulation takes into account the per antenna circuit power consumption of the transmitter and the imperfect channel state information of the energy harvesting receivers. The adopted non-convex multi-objective optimization problem is transformed into an equivalent rank-constrained semidefinite program (SDP) and optimally solved by SDP relaxation. Numerical results unveil an interesting trade-off between the considered conflicting system design objectives and reveal the benefits of multiple transmit antennas for improving system energy efficiency.