Activation Distance and Capacity Analysis for Ambient Backscatter Communications with Sensitivity Constraint and Beamforming

Circuit sensitivity of sensors or tags without battery is one practical constraint for ambient backscatter communication systems.This letter considers using beamforming to reduce the sensitivity constraint and evaluates the corresponding performance in terms of the tag activation distance and the system capacity.Specifically,we derive the activation probabilities of the tag in the case of single-antenna and multi-antenna transmitters.Besides,we obtain the capacity expressions for the ambient backscatter communication system with beamforming and illustrate the power allocation that maximizes the system capacity when the tag is activated.Finally,simulation results are provided to corroborate our proposed studies.

Ambient Backscatter Communications over NOMA Downlink Channels

In this paper,we investigate the performance of commensal ambient backscatter communications(AmBC)that ride on a non-ortho go nal multiple access(NOMA)downlink transmission,in which a backscatter device(BD)splits part of its received signals from the base station(BS)for energy harvesting,and backscatters the remaining received signals to transmit information to a cellular user.Specifically,under the power consumption constraint at BD and the peak transmit power constraint at BS,we derive the optimal reflection coefficient at BD,the optimal total transmit power at BS,and the optimal power allocation at BS for each transmission block to maximize the ergodic capacity of the ambient backscatter transmission on the premise of preserving the outage performance of the NOMA downlink transmission.Furthermore,we consider a scenario where the BS is restricted by a maximum allowed average transmit power and the reflection coefficient at BD is fixed due to BD’s low-complexity nature.An algorithm is developed to determine the optimal total transmit power and power allocation at BS for this scenario.Also,a low-complexity algorithm is proposed for this scenario to reduce the computational complexity and the signaling overheads.Finally,the performance of the derived solutions are studied and compared via numerical simulations.

Spatial Modulation-Based Ambient Backscatter: Bringing Energy Self-Sustainability to Massive Internet of Everything in 6G

Ambient backscatter communications(AmBC)is a new ultra-low-power communication paradigm,which holds great promise for enabling energy self-sustainability(ESS)to massive data-intensive Internet of Everything(IoE)devices in 6G.Recent advances improve throughput and reliability by adopting multiple-antenna techniques in conventional backscatter communications(CoBC),but they cannot be directly applied to AmBC devices for high spectral and energy efficiency due to the unknown RF source and minimalist design in backscatter tag.To fill this gap,we propose SM-backscatter,an AmBC-compatible system that greatly improves spectral efficiency while maintaining ultra-low-power consumption.Specifically,the SM-backscatter consists of two novel components:i)a multiple-antenna backscatter tag that adopts spatial modulation(SM),and ii)a joint detection algorithm that detects both backscatter and source signals.To this end,we theoretically obtain an optimal detector and propose two suboptimal detectors with low complexity.Subsequently,we derive the BERs of both the backscatter and source signals to analyze the communication performance by introducing a two-step algorithm.Our simulation results verify the correctness of the theoretical analysis and indicate that our system can significantly outperform existing solutions.

Sensitivity and Distance Based Performance Analysis for Batteryless Tags with Transmit Beamforming and Ambient Backscattering

Ambient backscatter is a new green technology for Internet of Things(IoT)that utilizes surrounding wireless signals to enable batteryless devices to communicate with other devices.The battery-free devices first harvest energy from ambient wireless signals and then backscatter the signals for communications.Clearly,sensitivity and distance are two important parameters for system performance.However,most existing studies on ambient backscatter communication systems do not consider the impact of the sensitivity of the energy-harvesting nodes and the distances between these devices.In this paper,we first provide a literature review for ambient communication technology and then take sensitivity and distance as two key parameters and investigate the sensitivity and distance based performance for ambient backscatter communication systems.Specifically,we establish the mathematical model based on distances between transceivers and backscattering nodes,extract a parameter that can differentiate the direct path and the backscattering path,evaluate the effects of transmit beamforming,design an energy detector for the reader,and analyze the outage probability of energy harvesting at the tag and the bit error rate(BER)at the reader.Simulations are then provided to corroborate the proposed studies.

Performance Analysis of Three Spectrum Sensing Detection Techniques with Ambient Backscatter Communication in Cognitive Radio Networks

In wireless communications, the Ambient Backscatter Communication (AmBC) technique is a promisingapproach, detecting user presence accurately at low power levels. At low power or a low Signal-to-Noise Ratio(SNR), there is no dedicated power for the users. Instead, they can transmit information by reflecting the ambientRadio Frequency (RF) signals in the spectrum. Therefore, it is essential to detect user presence in the spectrum forthe transmission of data without loss or without collision at a specific time. In this paper, the authors proposed anovel Spectrum Sensing (SS) detection technique in the Cognitive Radio (CR) spectrum, by developing the AmBC.Novel Matched Filter Detection with Inverse covariance (MFDI), Cyclostationary Feature Detection with Inversecovariance (CFDI) and Hybrid Filter Detection with Inverse covariance (HFDI) approaches are used with AmBCto detect the presence of users at low power levels. The performance of the three detection techniques is measuredusing the parameters of Probability of Detection (PD), Probability of False Alarms (Pfa), Probability of MissedDetection (Pmd), sensing time and throughput at low power or low SNR. The results show that there is a significantimprovement via the HFDI technique for all the parameters.

Joint optimization for secure ambient backscatter communication in NOMA-enabled IoT networks

Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access(NOMA)has emerged as a novel air interface technology for massive connectivity in Sixth-Generation(6G)era.The recent integration of NOMA in Backscatter Communication(BC)has triggered significant research interest due to its applications in low-powered Internet of Things(IoT)networks.However,the link security aspect of these networks has not been well investigated.This article provides a new optimization framework for improving the physical layer security of the NOMA ambient BC system.Our system model takes into account the simultaneous operation of NOMA IoT users and the Backscatter Node(BN)in the presence of multiple EavesDroppers(EDs).The EDs in the surrounding area can overhear the communication of Base Station(BS)and BN due to the wireless broadcast transmission.Thus,the chief aim is to enhance link security by optimizing the BN reflection coefficient and BS transmit power.To gauge the performance of the proposed scheme,we also present the suboptimal NOMA and conventional orthogonal multiple access as benchmark schemes.Monte Carlo simulation results demonstrate the superiority of the NOMA BC scheme over the pure NOMA scheme without the BC and conventional orthogonal multiple access schemes in terms of system secrecy rate.

Backscatter t echnologies and the future of Internet of Things:Challenges and opportunities

Energy source and circuit cost are two critical challenges for the future development of the Internet of Things(IoT).Backscatter communications offer a potential solution to conveniently obtain power and reduce cost for sensors in IoT,and researchers are paying close attention to the technology.Backscatter technology originated from the Second World War and has been widely applied in the logistics domain.Recently,both the academic and industrial worlds are proposing a series of new types of backscatter technologies for communications and IoT.In this paper,we review the history of both IoT and backscatter,describe the new types of backscatter,demonstrate their applications,and discuss the open challenges.

Large Intelligent Surface/Antennas (LISA): Making Reflective Radios Smart

Large intelligent surface/antennas(LISA),a two-dimensional artificial structure with a large number of reflective-surface/antenna elements,is a promising reflective radio technology to construct programmable wireless environments in a smart way.Specifically,each element of the LISA adjusts the reflection of the incident electromagnetic waves with unnatural properties,such as negative refraction,perfect absorption,and anomalous reflection,thus the wireless environments can be software-defined according to various design objectives.In this paper,we introduce the reflective radio basics,including backscattering principles,backscatter communication,reflective relay,the fundamentals and implementations of LISA technology.Then,we present an overview of the state-of-the-art research on emerging applications of LISA-aided wireless networks.Finally,the limitations,challenges,and open issues associated with LISA for future wireless applications are discussed.