The Wireless Information and Power Transfer Sensor Networks (WIPSNs): Opportunities & Challenges

The paper reviewed the cutting-edge status in the Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) technology for the Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and the recent advances in the Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer (SWIPT) technology. The receiver equipped with the Wireless Information Transfer (WIT) and the Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) units was illustrated. The paper also put forward the concept of Wireless Information and Power transfer Sensor Networks (WIPSNs) which denotes the WSNs combining with the SWIPT technology for the first time. The architectures of both the node and the network were derived by integrating the Time Switching (TS) or Power Splitting (PS) technologies into the receiver and extending the protocol stack of the traditional WSNs respectively. The components of each layers were discussed in detail and the existing challenges facing WIPSNs were also pointed out. Finally, the challenges in terms of five aspects, namely, the power management, MAC and routing protocols design, QoS constraint, and the security problem, are detailed.