Abstract
This article evaluates the energy-harvesting capabilities of a multiuser non-orthogonal multiple access-based system, where energy harvesting relays utilise the power splitting relaying protocol to harvest energy and amplify-and-forward protocol to forward the signals to the connected users. The expressions for each user’s energy harvesting outage probability are calculated and compared to the same system model without energy harvesting. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the energy-harvesting relay nodes and the improved outage probability of each user.
1 Introduction
Energy harvesting in wireless communication networks has garnered much attention recently; it is a proposed solution to self-sustaining and lifetime extension of wireless networks. It is argued that battery replacement and charging can be done; however, it can be costly and inconvenient, especially if the location of the batteries is not ideal. There are environmental energy-harvesting techniques such as wind, solar, and vibration; however, radio frequency (RF) wireless energy transfer is a more controlled, convenient, and safer way to harvest energy from the environment. RF signals contain information and energy; thus, an energy-harvesting node can simultaneously harvest and process information. A relay in a cooperative wireless network needs to have sufficient energy to stay active; therefore, a relay node with energy-harvesting capabilities is an excellent advantage in a wireless network [1,2].
Research in cooperative networks shows the benefits of energy-harvesting nodes, such as an increase in the life span of the nodes and the self-sustainability of a communication network, especially for 5G applications. The energy-harvesting employs different receiver architectures, power splitting, and time switching, thus enabling two protocols: power splitting relaying (PSR) and time switching relaying (TSR). The authors of refs [3,4,5,6] utilise the most widely used PSR protocol, whereas ref. [7] utilises the TSR protocol. However, refs [8] and [2] utilise both protocols and evaluate the performance of each. Moreover, ref. [8] reports the superiority of the PSR protocol, whereas ref. [2] reports that the latter is superior. Many researchers only implement one energy-harvesting scheme into their system model; however, refs [3] and [9] implement three different relay schemes. To explore the comparison of the proposed schemes, [3] implements adaptable PSR schemes, whereas [9] increases the security of the communication system. The previous studies [9,10] focus on the physical layer security of the communication system, where the base station transmits a jamming signal to mitigate interference from the eavesdropper node.
2 System model
The system model is similar to that shown in ref. [11]; however, the two relays employ energy-harvesting capabilities. This article follows the layout and the method presented in ref. [11]: the system model in which user connections, time subslots, power allocation, decoding order, and outage probability conditions are the same, thus avoiding repetition.
2.1 Time sub-slot
t
s
1
The active users in the network are

System model 1.
The received signals at
The decoding order follows that of ref. [11], for time sub-slot
The decoded SINRs at
The energy-harvesting does not affect
With the remaining power of the received signal
The decoded SINR at relays
In the first block-time, the energy-harvesting receiver at
The harvested energy is used to power the relays; thus, the relay power is given by
2.2 Time sub-slot
t
s
2
In the second block-time, the amplify-and-forward (AF) protocol utilises an amplifying factor
The relays regenerate the signals for the users connected to it with the amplification given by Eqs. (21) and (22).
The received signals of
Combining Eqs. (19)–(24), the decoded SINRs at
2.3 Time sub-slot
t
s
3
In this time sub-slot, the UEs status changes according to their new locations as shown in Figure 2, with the following connections:

System model 2.
The received signals at
The decoded SINRs at
As previously stated in Section 2.1, the PSR protocol splits the received signal by
Eqs. (37)–(40) give the decoded SINR at the relays in time sub-slot
The energy-harvesting equations in Section 2.1 are not time dependent; thus, they are utilised in this time sub-slot as well.
2.4 Time sub-slot
t
s
4
The relays regenerate the signals for the users connected to it, given by the following equations:
The received signals of
The decoded SINRs at
3 Energy-harvesting outage probability
The outage probability for energy harvesting is similar to that presented in ref. [11]. For generality, the conditions for communication interruption or an outage event may occur if one of the following conditions hold:
If a user cannot detect the signals of higher-powered users.
If a relay cannot detect the signals of higher-powered users.
If a relay cannot detect the signals of the users connected to it.
If the user throughput is not able to achieve the target rate
See reference [11] for more details.
3.1 Outage probability for
UE
1
Outage probability for
Outage probability for
3.2 Outage probability for
UE
2
Outage probability for
Outage probability for
3.3 Outage probability for
UE
3
Outage probability for
Outage probability for
3.4 Outage probability for
UE
4
Outage probability for
Outage probability for
4 Simulation results
The simulation model is shown in Figures 1 and 2, with the energy-harvesting relay nodes. The system model has one BS, two relays
System parameters
|
Base station power |
---|---|
|
Figure 1 channel variances |
|
Figure 2 channel variances |
|
Target rate |
|
Power splitting coefficient |
|
Energy conversion efficiency |
|
Transmit power |
The simulation results show the outage probability of UEs in the various time sub-slots. Figure 3 shows the outage probability of

Outage probability of user 1.
Figure 4 shows the outage probability of

Outage probability of user 2.
Figures 5 and 6 show the outage probability of

Outage probability of user 3.

Outage probability of user 4.
5 Conclusion
This article evaluated the effectiveness of the energy-harvesting relay nodes on the user’s outage probability. The four-user NOMA-based network utilises energy-harvesting relays to communicate with the base station. This research is an adaptation and extension of the research presented by ref. [11], utilising the same methods and procedures to derive the outage probability expressions. The results simply show the impact of the energy harvesting on the outage probability of the users as well as their positions in the network. The cell edge users connected to the relays benefit from the harvested energy by receiving more power than the network without harvesting, which can be seen in the results. Future works may include the physical layer security of the energy-harvesting network by implementing a jamming signal to mitigate eavesdropping.
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Funding information: The authors state no funding involved.
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Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.
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Conflict of interest: The authors state no conflict of interest.
References
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© 2022 the author(s), published by De Gruyter
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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