Packet Drop Probability Analysis of Dual Energy Harvesting Links With Retransmission

In this paper, we consider point-to-point dual energy harvesting (EH) links, where both transmitter and receiver are EH nodes (EHNs), with a retransmission protocol: either an automatic repeat request (ARQ) or hybrid ARQ with chase combining. We develop a framework to analyze the impact of various physical layer parameters, e.g., the energy harvesting profiles, size of energy buffer, and power management policies, at both the transmitter and receiver, and the channel statistics and coherence time, on the packet drop probability (PDP) of dual EH links over block fading channels. We derive the closed-form expressions for the PDP of a retransmission index-based power management policy. The presented framework naturally extends to obtain the PDP of mono EH links, i.e., links where only one of the two nodes harvests energy. To obtain further insights, we analyze the PDP of links with zero and infinite energy buffer size, and characterize the energy unconstrained regime, where the PDP is governed only by the average harvesting rate. Through extensive Monte Carlo simulations, we demonstrate the accuracy of the theoretical expressions, compare performance against existing power management schemes, and illustrate the performance tradeoffs involved.