Energy beamforming for full-duplex wireless-powered communication networks

Abstract In this paper, we consider a full-duplex (FD) wireless-powered communication network (WPCN), where one FD hybrid access point (HAP) equipped with multiple antennas simultaneously transmits energy to and receives information from multiple users. Firstly, we propose a space division wireless energy allocation scheme and calculate the harvested energy in downlink wireless energy transfer (WET) for each user. Secondly, we derive an approximate closed-form expression of user’s achievable ergodic rate in uplink wireless information transfer (WIT). Thirdly, the energy allocation for different users is optimized under the max–min user fairness constraint, and a closed-form solution is obtained. Numerical results show that the simulation and the approximation of achievable rates are well matched, and energy beamforming can effectively suppress self-interference (SI), and improve rates as well as fairness among users. Moreover, FD-WPCNs are shown to outperform half-duplex (HD) WPCNs in rates with same number of antennas.