On the Performance of mmWave Networks Aided by Wirelessly Powered Relays

We investigate the energy harvesting (EH) potential of an outdoor millimeter-wave (mmWave) network aided by wirelessly powered relays (WRs). Due to the effect of propagation characteristics, such as blockages, WRs can assist coverage in mmWave networks. In this paper, we consider WRs to be equipped with battery units that can store ambient radio frequency energy from mmWave sources. The sources and the WRs are modeled as independent homogeneous Poisson point processes (PPPs). Leveraging tools from stochastic geometry, we study the EH potential of the WRs and their coverage probability based on the amount of energy that can be harvested. To successfully receive and transmit, the batteries in the WRs have to store sufficient energy, while the received signal to interference plus noise ratio at the destination is above a certain threshold level. We also analyze the node isolation and network connectivity probabilities for the WRs considering a bounded region. Based on this bounded region of the WRs, we then select the best WR to forward the message from sources to the destination. Overall, with the help of simulation results, we show that for a RF-to-DC conversion efficiency of 10%, the energy harvested in WRs can provide sufficient coverage probability in a mmWave network.