Performance analysis of ambient backscatter communications in RF-powered cognitive radio networks

Integrating ambient backscatter communications into RF-powered cognitive radio networks has been shown to be a promising method for achieving energy and spectrum efficient communications, which is very attractive for low-power or no-power communications. In such scenarios, a secondary user (SU) can operate in either transmission mode or backscatter mode. Specifically, an SU can directly transmit data if sufficient energy has been harvested (i.e., transmission mode). Or an SU can backscatter ambient signals to transmit data (i.e., backscatter mode). In this paper, for investigating the performance of such systems, we apply stochastic geometry to analyze coverage probability and achievable rates for both primary and secondary users considering both communication modes. Analytical tractable expressions are obtained. Extensive simulations are performed and the numerical results show the validity of our analysis. Furthermore, the results indicate that the performance of secondary systems can be improved with the integration of both communication modes with only limited impact on the performance of primary systems.