Analysis of energy harvesting for green cognitive radio networks

This paper develops a Markov Chain analysis framework for an RF energy harvesting cognitive radio network where the secondary system users are furnished with finite-sized batteries. We consider a network where the only source of energy for the secondary system is the RF signals of the primary system resulting in an inter-play between energy harvesting and transmission for the secondary network. We show that an RF energy harvesting cognitive radio using todays technology is suitable for a delay-tolerant sensor network where the nodes need to transmit sensor output values very sporadically. We observe that the interplay between primary user traffic arrival and departure rates as well as probabilities of missed detection and false alarm for the secondary user detector and available battery size is of importance and that a percentile channel occupation of the primary network on its own is not a sufficient metric.