11064 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 68, NO.
11, NOVEMBER 2019
Adaptive Discrete-Time-Switching-Based
Energy-Harvesting Relaying Systems
Weiyu Chen , Haiyang Ding , Member, IEEE, Shilian Wang , Member, IEEE,
Daniel Benevides da Costa , Senior Member, IEEE, and Fengkui Gong
Abstract—In this paper, to perform an energy-efficient and high-
throughput time-switching (TS)-based energy-harvesting (EH) re-
laying in a practical block-by-block manner, an adaptive discrete
TS-based EH relaying scheme is proposed. Specifically, focusing on
both dual-hop amplify-and-forward (AF) and decode-and-forward
(DF) systems, we make full use of the channel state information
(CSI) at the relay to determine an adaptive relaying power as well
as an adaptive TS factor based on the relay’s current accumulated
energy. For such, an effective analytical framework is proposed to
characterize the throughput performance of the proposed scheme,
which shows the superiority of the proposed scheme over the con-
ventional one. In particular, the limiting throughput efficiency of
the proposed scheme is shown to achieve the limiting/best through-
put efficiency of 50% for half-duplex relaying regardless of channel
fading types, while the limiting throughput efficiency of the conven-
tional scheme is always less than 50%. Furthermore, simulation
results are given to validate our theoretical analysis, showing that
for AF mode, the proposed scheme can provide up to 7.4 dB
threshold signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gain over the conventional
solution. In addition, a comprehensive comparison between the
proposed scheme and other state-of-the-art protocols is also made
via representative numerical examples.
Index Terms—Wireless energy harvesting, adaptive time-
switching, relay, throughput efficiency.
I. INTRODUCTION
IMULTANEOUS wireless information and power transfer
S (SWIPT), which allows wireless communication devices
to recharge their batteries from intended or unintended signals,
has recently emerged as an attractive approach to improve energy
efficiency in the imminent fifth-generation (5G) era [1]–[3]. The
Manuscript received January 13, 2019; revised June 14, 2019 and August 25,
2019; accepted September 17, 2019. Date of publication September 24, 2019;
date of current version November 12, 2019. This work was supported in part by
the National Key R&D Program of China under Grant 2018YFE0100500, in part
by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61871387,
in part by the Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi under Grant
2019JM-019, and in part by the NUDT Research Fund under Grant ZK17-03-08.
The review of this article was coordinated by Dr. S. Majhi. (Corresponding
author: Shilian Wang.)
W. Chen and S. Wang are with the College of Electronic Science and
Technology, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073,
China (e-mail: chenweiyu14@nudt.edu.cn; wangsl@nudt.edu.cn).
H. Ding is with the College of Information and Communication, National
University of Defense Technology, Xi’an 710106, China (e-mail: dinghy2003@
hotmail.com).
D. B. da Costa is with the Department of Computer Engineering, Federal Uni-
versity of Ceará, Sobral 62010-560, CE, Brazil (e-mail: danielbcosta@ieee.org).
F. Gong is with the State Key Laboratory of Integrated Service Networks,
Xidian University, Xi’an 710071, China (e-mail: fkgong@xidian.edu.cn).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TVT.2019.2943364
0018-9545 © 2019 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
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seminal studies of SWIPT implicitly assumed that the same sig-
nal can be used for both energy harvesting (EH) and information
transmission (IT) [4], [5]. However, this is not possible until
now because a practical EH operation destroys the information
carried by the signal. Thus, a realistic SWIPT process splits the
signal in one or more domains (e.g., time, power, antenna and
space domains) [6].
From an information-theoretic viewpoint, [5] emphasized the
importance of SWIPT and ignited plenty of investigations into
various point-to-point SWIPT systems, covering single-input-
single-output (SISO) [7], [8], single-input-multiple-output
(SIMO) [9], multiple-input-single-output (MISO) [10] and
multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) [11] setups. In particu-
lar, [7] proposed the time-switching (TS) as well as the power-
splitting (PS) architectures and characterized their performance,
which was extended into a MIMO scenario in [11]. Considering
different trade-offs, [8] derived several optimal/suboptimal TS
schemes at the receiver, whose energy comes from both intended
signals and unintended interference.
In addition to point-to-point systems, the idea of SWIPT was
subsequently migrated to cooperative networks. In this regard,
[12] considered several power allocation strategies at a PS-based
relay, which assists the IT between multiple source-destination
pairs. [13] investigated a cellular network in which both the
source and the relay first harvest the downlink signaling energy
from the access point and then cooperate during the uplink
transmissions. Taking both the channel state information (CSI)
and the battery status of EH relays into account, [14] proposed
a relay selection scheme and derived its outage probability.
Furthermore, by making use of stochastic-geometry tools, [15]
characterized the performance of a large-scale network, where
the receivers are self-sustaining by adopting the PS technique.
As a typical/important cooperative scenario, dual-hop EH re-
laying systems have attracted extensive attentions. For such sce-
nario, [16] designed a TS-based protocol as well as a PS-based
protocol and then characterized their throughput. Allowing en-
ergy accumulation at the EH relay, [17] further proposed several
TS-based EH relaying protocols, which can intelligently switch
between EH and IT based on the relay’s current accumulated
energy and thus outperform the existing protocols. Very recently,
considering a continuous-time TS-based EH relaying system,1
1 For continuous-time TS, the EH time can be any percentage of the total
transmission block time. For discrete-time TS, the whole transmission block is
either used for EH or IT [17].
 CHEN et al.: ADAPTIVE DISCRETE-TIME-SWITCHING BASED ENERGY-HARVESTING RELAYING SYSTEMS 11065

[18] introduced an adaptive TS factor setup, which can effec- TABLE I

NOMENCLATURE OF SYMBOLS AND NOTATIONS IN THIS ARTICLE
tively avoid information outage (IO) at destination. However, the
continuous-time TS scheme requires the relay node to monitor
the accumulated energy in a continuous/real-time manner, which
leads to significant energy consumption at the EH relay node in
addition to a higher implementation complexity. Therefore, the
continuous-time TS-based relaying scheme is not appealing for
practical wireless EH applications. A question then naturally
arises: How to perform the TS scheme efficiently in a block-by-
block discrete-time manner? This work aims to solve this prob-
lem and the main contributions can be summarized as below:
i) Aiming at performing an energy-efficient and high-
throughput information transmission for both amplify-
and-forward (AF) and decode-and-forward (DF) relay-
ing, a discrete TS-based EH relaying scheme is proposed,
which can make full use of the CSI knowledge at the relay
to determine an adaptive TS factor as well as an adaptive
relaying power based on the relay’s current accumulated
energy.
ii) By invoking a reasonable approximation of the distribu-
tion of the initial accumulated energy within a transmis-
sion block at the relay, easy-to-evaluate expressions are
developed for the throughput efficiency of the proposed
scheme under the Rayleigh fading channels. Furthermore,
the effects of line-of-sight (LOS) components on the
throughput performance of the proposed and conventional
schemes [17] are investigated.
iii) Regardless of channel fading types, it is proven that the
proposed scheme is able to achieve the optimal/limiting
throughput efficiency of 50% for half-duplex relaying, both AF and DF modes, based on which the adaptive discrete
whereas the limiting throughput efficiency of the conven- TS-based EH relaying protocols are proposed.
tional scheme is always less than 50%. In addition, a strict
proof of the superiority of the proposed scheme over the A. AF Relaying
conventional one is provided.
iv) Representative simulation results are given to validate our 1) System Model: Consider a dual-hop2 relaying scenario
analysis and demonstrate the superiority of our proposal. where a source node (S) communicates with a destination node
In particular, for AF mode, the proposed scheme can (D) via a relay node (R) in a block-by-block manner with block
provide up to 7.4 dB threshold signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) time duration T , and there is no direct link between S and D
gain over the conventional one. In addition, a comprehen- due to some physical obstacles. For the i-th block, the channel
sive comparison between the proposed scheme and other coefficients hi and gi pertaining to the S-R and R-D links are
state-of-the-art protocols is also made via representative subject to independent Rayleigh flat slow fading such that |hi |2
numerical examples. and |gi |2 obey exponential distributions with means λh and λg ,
The main symbols and notations in this paper are listed respectively. For AF relaying, the signal received by R within
in Table I, and the rest of the paper is organized as follows. the i-th block can be written as

Section II presents the system models and the proposed pro-
yr,i = Ps d−m 1 hi si + nr,i , (1)
tocols. Section III analytically investigates the performance of
the proposed protocols under the Rayleigh fading channels and where Ps represents the transmit power at S, d1 denotes the
compares it with the conventional protocols. Section IV extends distance between S and R, m indicates the path loss exponent,
the theoretical results to general fading channels. Section V si represents the normalized signal transmitted by S, and nr,i
numerically validates the derived analytical results and com- denotes the zero-mean additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN)
pares the performance of the proposed protocols with the other at R with variance σn2 r .
protocols. Finally, Section VI concludes the paper. For the whole block, R either harvests energy from its received
signal yr,i , or forwards yr,i to D with a transmit power Pr . That
II. SYSTEM MODELS AND THE PROPOSED PROTOCOLS
2 As a start-up work, we focus on dual-hop relaying to design an adaptive
In this section, we first present the system models and the switching mechanism between EH and IT for each block, which may serve as a
conventional discrete TS-based EH relaying protocols [17] for benchmark for multi-hop relaying cases.

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 11066 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 68, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2019

is, each block is either an EH block or an IT block, and the
specific criteria for different protocols to switch between EH
and IT will be elaborated in the following subsections. For an
EH block, the amount of the energy harvested at R is ηPsd|hmi | T ,
2
3) Proposed Discrete TS-Based EH AF Relaying Protocol:
For the i-th block, to avoid IO at D, it is required that γd,i ≥ γ0 ,
which is equivalent to

1 (γsr,i − γ0 ) γrd,i ≥ γ0 (γsr,i + 1) , (8)

where η denotes the energy conversion efficiency. For an IT
block, one half of the block time duration is used for S-to-R IT, γ dm σ 2
which means that when γsr,i ≤ γ0 (i.e., |hi |2 ≤ 0 P1 nr
 a),
whereas the other half is used for R-to-D IT such that the amount s
IO definitely happens. Thus, R executes EH in this case. On the
of the energy consumed at R is Pr2T . For R-to-D IT, the signal
other hand, when γsr,i > γ0 , (8) is equivalent to
received by D can be represented as

2 σnd γ0 (γsr,i + 1)
dm 2
yd,i = d−m 2 gi xr,i + nd,i , (2) Pr ≥  Pr,i . (9)
|gi |2 (γsr,i − γ0 )
√
where xr,i = √
Pr yr,i
represents the signal transmitted Note that herein Pr,i is the minimum required relaying power
Ps |hi |2 d−m
1 +σn
2
r
by R, d2 denotes the distance between R and D, and nd,i for a successful IT, and if the relaying power is higher than Pr,i ,
represents the AWGN at D with zero mean and variance σn2 d . additional energy has to be harvested and consumed, which will
As thus, the received SNR at D can be given by deteriorate the throughput efficiency. Therefore, when |hi |2 > a,
γsr,i γrd,i R will execute IT with an adaptive relaying power Pr,i if its
γd,i = , (3) P T
accumulated energy is sufficient (i.e., Ei (0) ≥ r,i
γsr,i + γrd,i + 1 2 ), otherwise
it will execute EH. As a result, an adaptive TS factor is deployed
where γsr,i  dPms |h i|
and γrd,i  dPmr |gσi2 | . If γd,i is lower than
2 2
2 at R as
1 σn r 2 nd
⎧
a given threshold SNR γ0 , D will suffer from IO, which can be ⎪ 1, if |hi |2 ≤ a,
⎪
⎪
represented by the outage indicator as ⎪
⎨
 Pr,i T
αi = 1, if |hi | > a, Ei (0) < 2 ,
2
(10)
1, if γd,i < γ0 , ⎪
⎪
Io,i = (4) ⎪
⎪
0, if γd,i ≥ γ0 . ⎩0, if |hi |2 > a, Ei (0) ≥ Pr,i T .
2
2) Conventional Discrete TS-Based EH AF Relaying
Accordingly, the accumulated energy at the end of the i-th block
Protocol [17]: At the beginning of each block, R checks its
can be written as
initial accumulated energy Ei (0). If Ei (0) < Pr2T , R executes
⎧
EH, otherwise it executes IT with a fixed preset transmit power ⎪ ηPs |hi |2 T
⎨Ei (0) + , if αi = 1,
Pr . As thus, the TS factor αi (the percentage of the time used dm
Ei (T ) = Ei+1 (0) = 1
for EH in the i-th block) can be given as ⎪
⎩E (0) − Pr,i T ,
 i if αi = 0.
2
1, if Ei (0) < Pr2T , (11)
αi = (5)
0, if Ei (0) ≥ Pr2T .
Note that for the proposed protocol, IO will not happen as long
Consequently, at the end of the i-th block, the accumulated as IT is executed. As thus, the throughput efficiency of the i-th
energy can be written as block can be expressed as
⎧
⎪ ηPs |hi |2 T 1 − αi
⎨Ei (0) + , if αi = 1, τi = . (12)
Ei (T ) = Ei+1 (0) = dm1 (6) 2
⎪
⎩E (0) − Pr T ,
i if αi = 0.
2 B. DF Relaying
Next, the throughput efficiency of the i-th block can be expressed 1) System Model: For DF relaying, the signal received by R
as can still be written as in (1). Note that only if the first-hop channel
(1 − Io,i ) (1 − αi ) is not in outage (|hi |2 ≥ a), R can conduct IT (i.e., decoding and
τi = . (7)
2 then forwarding the information from S). In this case, the signal
Although the conventional AF protocol provides a practical received by D can be represented as
block-by-block approach to switch between EH and IT, it is not 
efficient due to its accumulated-energy-based TS factor setup yd,i = Pr d−m 2 gi si + nd,i . (13)
and fixed relaying power setup, which can not avoid IO at D
Accordingly, the received SNR at D can be given by
when executing IT and thus waste part of the harvested energy. In
addition, these setups also waste energy when the channel power Pr |gi |2
gains (i.e., |hi |2 and |gi |2 ) are high enough (i.e., γd,i  γ0 ), γd,i = . (14)
dm 2
2 σnd
because in this case, a successful IT does not require that much
relaying power. This motivates us to design an adaptive protocol For DF relaying, the outage indicator can still be represented as
as follows. in (4) with γd,i given by (14).

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 CHEN et al.: ADAPTIVE DISCRETE-TIME-SWITCHING BASED ENERGY-HARVESTING RELAYING SYSTEMS 11067

2) Conventional Discrete TS-Based EH DF Relaying

Protocol [17]: For each block, if the first-hop channel is in
outage (i.e., |hi |2 < a), EH will be executed at R. Conversely, if
|hi |2 ≥ a, R will first check its initial accumulated energy Ei (0)
at the beginning of this block. Then, it will execute IT with a
fixed preset transmit power Pr if it has harvested enough energy
(i.e., Ei (0) ≥ Pr2T ). Otherwise, it will execute EH. Therefore,
herein the TS factor is determined by
⎧
⎪
⎪ 1, if |hi |2 < a,
⎪
⎪
⎨ Pr T
αi = 1, if |hi | ≥ a, Ei (0) < 2 ,
2
(15)
⎪
⎪
Fig. 1. The accurate distribution of the initial accumulated energy of the i-th
⎪
⎪ block within a pattern for the proposed AF protocol (The system parameters
⎩0, if |h |2 ≥ a, E (0) ≥ Pr T . setup is given in Section V, except that γ0 = 70 dB.) and the Gamma distribution
i i
2 with scale parameter i and shape parameter ηPs λh T /dm 1 .
Accordingly, the accumulated energy at the end of the i-th
block and the throughput efficiency of the i-th block can still
be expressed as in (6) and (7), respectively. III. THROUGHPUT ANALYSIS
Note that the conventional DF protocol does not take the In this section, for both AF and DF modes, we first present
second-hop channel coefficient gi into account. Specifically, its the closed-form expressions for the throughput efficiency of the
fixed relaying power setup can not avoid IO at D when |gi |2 is proposed protocols, based on which the comparison of the limit-
too small (i.e., γd,i < γ0 ). Meanwhile, part of the accumulated ing performance of the proposed protocols and the conventional
energy is wasted when |gi |2 is high enough (i.e., γd,i  γ0 ), ones is provided. In addition, the superiority of the proposed
since a smaller relaying power is required for a successful IT in TS scheme over the conventional one is further demonstrated in
this case. This inspires us to design an adaptive protocol. terms of the pattern length.3
3) Proposed Discrete TS-Based EH DF Relaying Protocol:
For DF relaying, to avoid IO at D, it is required that the first-hop A. AF Relaying
channel is not in outage (i.e., |hi |2 ≥ a) and the transmit power
at R satisfies to For the conventional discrete TS-based EH AF relaying proto-
col, it follows from [17] that except for the first pattern, the initial
dm 2
2 σnd γ0 accumulated energy of the i-th block within a pattern (Ei (0))
Pr ≥  Pr,i . (16)
|gi |2 obeys a Gamma distribution with scale parameter i and shape
λh T
As before, if the relaying power is higher than Pr,i , additional parameter ηPdsm . However, for the proposed discrete TS-based
1

energy will be wasted. Thus, for the proposed DF protocol, EH AF relaying protocol, the TS factor and the relaying power
P T
only if the conditions |hi |2 ≥ a and Ei (0) ≥ r,i are satisfied are adaptively adjusted according to the instantaneous channel
2
simultaneously, R executes IT with an adaptive transmit power conditions. As a result, the EH and IT operations at the relay
Pr,i given by (16), otherwise it executes EH. As a result, the become rather irregular, which makes the exact distribution of
adaptive TS factor can be expressed as Ei (0) intractable. Alternatively, by invoking extensive numeri-
⎧ cal experiments, it is observed that the distribution of Ei (0) for
⎪
⎪ 1, if |hi |2 < a, the proposed AF protocol can be reasonably approximated by a
⎪
⎪
⎨ Pr,i T Gamma distribution with scale parameter i and shape parameter
αi = 1, if |hi | ≥ a, Ei (0) < 2 ,
2 ηPs λh T
(17) . This can be explained by the fact that for both the
⎪
⎪
dm
1
⎪
⎪ conventional AF protocol and the proposed one, the amount
⎩0, if |h |2 ≥ a, E (0) ≥ Pr,i T .
i i
2 of the energy harvested within each EH block always obeys an
λh T
exponential distribution with mean ηPdsm . Hereafter, we refer
Next, the accumulated energy at the end of the i-th block and 1

the throughput efficiency of the i-th block can still be expressed
as in (11) and (12), respectively.
Remark 1: Note that in contrast with the conventional pro-
tocols, the proposed protocols require R to keep track of the
second-hop CSI. This can be achieved by overhearing the clear-
to-send (CTS) packet from D at R [19]. As in [19] and [20], we
consider flat slow fading channels, in which case the channels
remain static within several symbol periods such that the CSI
overheads can be safely ignored in the long run. As will be
observed in Section V, the additional overheads are worth-
while since the proposed protocols can significantly improve
the throughput efficiency.
to this approximation as Gamma approximation.
Specifically, as demonstrated in Fig. 1, for a small i, the
Gamma approximation underestimates Ei (0), whereas for a
large i, the Gamma approximation overestimates Ei (0). In
between, there exists an i0 that makes the accurate distribution
of Ei0 (0) best match the Gamma approximation (judged by
Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence [21]). Additionally, as shown
in Table II, the best-matched index (i0 ) increases with the
average block number in a pattern (when the system parameters
3 For discrete TS-based EH relaying, a pattern begins with the end of the last
IT block, and may be composed of a single IT block or a sequence of EH blocks
followed by an IT block [17].

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 11068 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 68, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2019

TABLE II asymptotically expressed as

DEMONSTRATION OF THE ACCURACY OF THE GAMMA APPROXIMATION
1
τ→  . (21)
Pr dm
2 1+ 1
2ηPs λh

Proof: Please refer to Appendix B-2. 

Remark 2: It can be observed from Corollaries 1 and 2 that
the proposed AF protocol outperforms the conventional one in
terms of the limiting throughput efficiency.
a
Other system parameters are given in Section V.
For our proposal, as γ0 → ∞, it is rather involved to arrive at
b
The KL divergence between the accurate distribution of Ei0 (0) and a closed-form expression for the scaling law of the throughput
the Gamma distribution with scale parameter i0 and shape parameter efficiency due to the infinite summation in the denominator in
ηPs λh T /dm 1 .
c
Statistical average of the KL divergence between the accurate distri-
equation (18). Alternatively, given the same fixed Ei (0), we
bution of Ei (0) and the Gamma distribution with scale parameter i and compare the scaling law of the throughput efficiency per block
shape parameter ηPs λh T /dm 1 over the block index i. (τi ) for the two protocols as below.
Corollary 3: For the proposed discrete TS-based EH AF re-
change), which promises the accuracy of the Gamma approxi- laying protocol, given a fixed Ei (0), as γ0 → ∞, the throughput
mation. This by its turn leads to a tight approximation (as will efficiency per block scales as
⎛  ⎞
be validated in Section V) to the accurate throughput efficiency 
m 2
⎜ d1 σnr dm
2 σn2 d T  m m 2 2
 2d1 d2 σnr σnd T ⎟
for the proposed AF protocol as below. −⎜
⎝ + +  ⎟ γ0
⎠
Proposition 1: For the proposed discrete TS-based EH AF Ps λh 2Ei (0)λg Ei (0)Ps λh λg 1
τi ∝ e γ02 .
relaying protocol, the throughput efficiency can be written as
(22)
0.5 0.5
τ = ∞ ≈ p , p  1, Proof: Please refer to Appendix C-1. 
i=1 Pr (L = i) × i i=1 Pr (L = i) × i Corollary 4: For the conventional discrete TS-based EH AF
(18) relaying protocol, given a fixed Ei (0) and with the relay’s
where p terms are used to approximate the infinite summation, transmit power satisfying to Pr ≤ 2ETi (0) (otherwise τi = 0), as
and Pr (L = i) denotes the probability that a pattern has i blocks γ0 → ∞, the throughput efficiency per block scales as
in total (the length of the pattern, denoted by L, equals i), which ⎛  ⎞

m 2 m 2  m m 2 2
can be determined by ⎜ d1 σnr d2 σnd  4d1 d2 σnr σnd ⎟
−⎜ + +  ⎟ γ0
⎧ ⎝
Ps λ h Pr λ g Pr Ps λ h λ g ⎠
1
⎨PrIT(1), if i = 1, τi ∝ e γ02 . (23)
Pr (L = i) =
i−1 
⎩
n=1 (1 − PrIT(n)) × PrIT(i), if i ≥ 2, Proof: Please refer to Appendix C-2. 
(19) Remark 3: It follows from Corollaries 3 and 4 that for the
conventional AF protocol, when 2ETi (0) is smaller than the fixed
where PrIT(i) denotes the probability that the i-th block in a preset relaying power, the equation τi = 0 definitely holds. In
pattern is an IT block, which can be approximated as contrast, for the proposed AF protocol, τi is always greater than
dm 2  m i zero due to its adaptive relaying power setup. Onthe other hand,
1 σnr γ0 d1
dm 2
− 2Ei (0) dm σ 2 2 σn d 4dm dm σn 2 σ2

PrIT(i) ≈
1
e P λ
s h
2ηPs λh when Pr ≤ T , we have P1 s λnhr + P r λg + 1 2 r nd
Pr Ps λh λg ≥

λh Γ(i) dm σn2 dm σn 2 T 2dm dm σn 2 σ2 T
r nd
1
Ps λh
r
+ 2E
2
+ d
i (0)λg
1 2
such that the decaying rate of
Ei (0)Ps λh λg
m 2 m
 ∞ − d2 σnd γ0 − d1 z    τi of the proposed AF protocol is slower than or at least the same
zλ 2ηP λ C 1 λ h C 1 as that of the conventional one, which shows the superiority of
× e g s h K1 z i−1 dz,
0 z zλ h our proposal.
(20) In addition to the limiting performance, we will make a
comparison of the proposed AF protocol and the conventional
where Γ(·) is the Gamma function [22, Eq. (6.1.1)], K1 (·) one in terms of the pattern length. To proceed, some definitions
denotes the first order modified Bessel function of the second are given as follows: If the destination node does not suffer from
4dm dm σ 2 σ 2 γ0 (γ0 +1)
kind [23, Eq. (8.407)], and C1  1 2 nPr s λngd . IO during an IT block, we refer to this IT block as a valid IT
Proof: Please refer to Appendix A-1.  block. Then, we define a valid pattern as a single or a sequence of
Corollary 1: For the proposed discrete TS-based EH AF re- blocks that begin with the end of the last valid IT block and end
laying protocol, as γ0 → 0, the throughput efficiency approaches with the only valid IT block in the valid pattern. Clearly, for the
to the limiting throughput efficiency for half-duplex relaying, proposed protocols, any IT block will be a valid IT block, which
i.e., τ → 0.5. means that every pattern is also a valid pattern. In contrast, for the
Proof: Please refer to Appendix B-1.  conventional protocols, a valid pattern consists of one or more
Corollary 2: For the conventional discrete TS-based EH AF patterns. Based on these definitions, we provide the following
relaying protocol, as γ0 → 0, the throughput efficiency can be proposition.

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 CHEN et al.: ADAPTIVE DISCRETE-TIME-SWITCHING BASED ENERGY-HARVESTING RELAYING SYSTEMS
Proposition 2: With the same fading environment and initial
accumulated energy in a valid pattern, the length of the valid
pattern of the proposed discrete TS-based EH AF relaying
protocol is always shorter than or at least the same as that of
the conventional discrete TS-based EH AF relaying protocol.
Proof: Please refer to Appendix D.
Remark 4: Since the throughput efficiency equals one half of
the reciprocal of the expectation of the length of a valid pattern
for discrete TS schemes, we can deduce from Proposition 2 that
11069
Corollary 5: For the proposed discrete TS-based EH DF re-
laying protocol, as γ0 → 0, the throughput efficiency approaches
to the limiting throughput efficiency for half-duplex relaying,
i.e., τ → 0.5.
Proof: Please refer to Appendix B-3. 
 Corollary 6: For the conventional discrete TS-based EH DF
relaying protocol, as γ0 → 0, a tight lower bound of the through-
put efficiency can be asymptotically written as
1
the throughput efficiency of the proposed AF protocol is always τL → 
. (27)
Pr dm
larger than or at least the same as that of the conventional one. 2 1+ 1
2ηPs λh
In addition, from the proof we can summarize two main reasons
why our proposal has a larger throughput efficiency. One is that it Proof: Please refer to Appendix B-4. 
ensures that every IT operation is valid. The other is that it adopts Remark 5: From Corollaries 2 and 6, we can conclude that
the minimum required relaying power for every IT operation. the conventional AF and DF protocols have the same limiting
performance, which is less than 0.5, whereas from Corollaries
1 and 5, we can observe that both the proposed AF and DF pro-
B. DF Relaying
tocols can achieve the maximum possible throughput efficiency
For the proposed discrete TS-based EH DF relaying protocol, for half-duplex relaying systems (i.e., 0.5).
we employ the Gamma approximation once again to derive the In the following, for the proposed DF protocol, we provide an
closed-form expression for the throughput efficiency. Specifi- alternative approach to explore its performance in terms of the
cally, as validated by our extensive numerical experiments, the throughput efficiency per block (τi ).
distribution of the initial accumulated energy of the i-th block in Corollary 7: For the proposed discrete TS-based EH DF
a pattern (Ei (0)) for the proposed DF protocol can be reasonably relaying protocol, given a fixed Ei (0), the throughput efficiency
approximated by a Gamma distribution with scale parameter i per block can be expressed as
λh T
and shape parameter ηPdsm , since the amount of the energy   m 2  
1 d1 σnr dm 2
2 σnd T
harvested during each EH block obeys an exponential distri- τi = 0.5 × exp − + γ0 . (28)
bution with mean ηPdsm λh T
as before. The numerical plots and Ps λ h 2Ei (0)λg
1
table for validation, which are similar to Fig. 1 and Table II, are Proof: Please refer to Appendix C-3. 
omitted here due to the space limit. In Section V, we will observe Corollary 8: For the conventional discrete TS-based EH DF
that for the proposed DF protocol, the analytical throughput relaying protocol, given a fixed Ei (0) and with the relay’s
efficiency based on the Gamma approximation serves as a tight transmit power satisfying to Pr ≤ 2ETi (0) (otherwise τi = 0), the
approximation to the actual throughput efficiency. throughput efficiency per block can be given by
Proposition 3: For the proposed discrete TS-based EH DF   m 2 2  
relaying protocol, the throughput efficiency can be written as d1 σnr dm2 σnd
τi = 0.5 × exp − + γ0 . (29)
Ps λ h Pr λ g
0.5 0.5
τ = ∞ ≈ p , p  1, 
i=1 Pr (L = i) × i i=1 Pr (L = i) × i Proof: Please refer to Appendix C-4.
(24) Remark 6: It follows from Corollaries 7 and 8 that when
Pr > 2ETi (0) , the equation τi = 0 definitely holds for the con-
where Pr (L = i) can be expressed as ventional DF protocol due to its fixed preset relaying power
⎧ setup. In contrast, for the proposed DF protocol, τi is al-
⎨PrIT(1), if i = 1, ways greater than zero owing to its adaptive relaying power
Pr (L = i) =
i−1 
⎩
n=1 (1 − PrIT(n)) × PrIT(i), if i ≥ 2,
setup. On the other hand, when Pr ≤ 2ETi (0) , the inequality
dm 2
1 σn r
dm σ 2 dm σ 2 dm σ 2 T
(25) P s λh + P2 r λngd ≥ P1 s λnhr + 2E
2 nd
i (0)λg
holds and thus τi of the
proposed DF protocol is always larger than or at least the same as
where PrIT(i) can be approximated as that of the conventional DF protocol. Meanwhile, the decaying
 m
i d m σ 2 γ rate of τi of the proposed DF protocol with respect to γ0 is slower
d1 1 nr 0   i2
2ηPs λh −
P λ 2ηPs λh dm 2
2 σnd γ0 than or at least the same as that of the conventional DF protocol.
PrIT(i) ≈ e s h 2 Next, similar to the case of AF mode, we compare the pro-
Γ(i) λg dm
1
  posed DF protocol with the conventional DF protocol in terms
2dm m 2
1 d2 σnd γ0 of the length of a valid pattern as follows.
× Ki , (26)
ηPs λh λg Proposition 4: With the same fading environment and initial
accumulated energy in a valid pattern, the length of the valid
where Ki (·) denotes the i-th order modified Bessel function of pattern of the proposed discrete TS-based EH DF relaying
the second kind [23, Eq. (8.407)]. protocol is always shorter than or at least the same as that of
Proof: Please refer to Appendix A-2.  the conventional discrete TS-based EH DF relaying protocol.

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 11070 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 68, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2019

Proof: By following a similar procedure as that in Remark 8: It follows from Proposition 5 that the conclusions
Appendix D, we can complete the proof. One difference in the in Remark 3, which show the superiority of the proposed AF
proof is that for the conventional DF protocol, the relay node protocol over the conventional one in terms of the throughput
does not execute IT when the first-hop channel is in outage.  efficiency per block (τi ) under the Rayleigh fading channels,
Remark 7: As mentioned above, the throughput efficiency τ are applicable for Rician fading channels. Furthermore, by com-
equals one half of the reciprocal of the expectation of the length paring Proposition 5 with Corollaries 3 and 4, we can observe
of a valid pattern. Therefore, according to Proposition 4, we that for both the conventional and the proposed AF protocols, a
can deduce that the throughput efficiency of the proposed DF stronger LOS path in the first hop (a larger Kh ) results in a faster
protocol is always larger than or at least the same as that of the decaying rate of τi for high threshold SNR (γ0 ), which will be
conventional one. validated in Section V. To compensate this, we need to adopt a
higher transmit power at the source node.
IV. EXTENSION TO LOS SCENARIO Proposition 6: In the Rician fading scenario, given a fixed
Ei (0), as γ0 → ∞, the throughput efficiency per block for the
In this section, we investigate the performance of the conven-
proposed discrete TS-based EH DF relaying protocol scales as
tional and the proposed AF/DF protocols under more general ⎛ m 2 ⎞
fading channels. Specifically, by taking LOS paths into account, d1 σnr 2 σnd T (1+Kg ) ⎠
(1 + Kh ) dm 2
−Kh−Kg −⎝ + γ0
the decaying rate of the throughput efficiency per block (τi ) Ps λ h 2Ei (0)λg −1
τi ∝ e γ0 2 ,
versus threshold SNR (γ0 ) is derived for the four protocols.
(31)
Furthermore, we arrive at some general conclusions with re-
spect to the limiting throughput efficiency of the four protocols while the decaying law of the throughput efficiency per block
regardless of fading types. for the conventional DF protocol can be achieved by replacing
As in [24], herein we adopt the Rician fading model [25] 2Ei (0)
T with Pr in (31) on the premise of the relay’s transmit
to characterize the fading behavior of the wireless channels power satisfying to Pr ≤ 2ETi (0) (otherwise τi = 0 holds for the
with strong LOS paths such that the channel power gains x  conventional DF protocol).
|hi |2 and y  |gi |2 obey non-central chi-square distributions Proof: Please refer to Appendix C-6. 
(1+Kh )x 
(1+Kh )e−Kh −
as f (x) = λh e λh
I0 (2 Kh (1+Kh )x
λh ) and f (y) = Remark 9: Comparing Proposition 6 with Corollaries 7 and
−Kg (1+Kg )y  8, we can observe that the conclusions made in Remark 8 are
(1+Kg )e −
λg e λg
I0 (2 Kg (1+Kg )y
λg ) , respectively, where Kh applicable for DF mode. In addition, it can be observed that for
4 all the four protocols (i.e., the conventional and the proposed
and Kg denote the Rician K factors of the first-hop and the
second-hop channels, respectively, and Iv (·) represents the v-th AF/DF protocols), higher average channel power gains (λh and
order modified Bessel function of the first kind [23, Eq. (8.43)]. λg ) result in a slower decaying rate of τi .
Due to the complexity of the expressions of f (x) and f (y), it On the other hand, it is worth noting that Proposition 2 and
is rather involved to achieve the theoretical expressions for the 4, which demonstrate the superiority of the proposed scheme
throughput efficiency of the proposed protocols under the Rician over the conventional one in terms of the pattern length, are
fading channels. Alternatively, we study the decaying rate of the applicable for Rician fading channels. Indeed, Proposition 2 and
throughput efficiency per block (τi ) as follows. 4 are applicable regardless of channel fading types since the
Proposition 5: In the Rician fading scenario, given a fixed proof of them does not rely on the channel fading types. In the
Ei (0), as γ0 → ∞, the throughput efficiency per block for the following, we provide another general Proposition.
proposed discrete TS-based EH AF relaying protocol scales as Proposition 7: Regardless of channel fading types, for the
  proposed discrete TS-based EH AF and DF relaying protocols,
1 d2 σnr σnd T (1 + Kh ) (1 + Kg )
2dm m 2 2
as γ0 → 0, the throughput efficiency approaches to the limiting
τi ∝ exp −γ0
Ei (0)Ps λh λg throughput efficiency for half-duplex relaying, i.e., τ → 0.5,
  whereas for the conventional AF and DF protocols, as γ0 → 0,
dm1 σnr (1+Kh ) 2 σnd T (1+Kg )
dm
2 2 the throughput efficiency can be asymptotically expressed as
+ + − Kh −Kg ,  ∞  
Ps λ h 2Ei (0)λg 2Ei (0)
τ → 0.5 × f dz, (32)
(30) Pr T
while the decaying law of the throughput efficiency per block where Ei (0) denotes the initial accumulated energy of a general
for the conventional AF protocol can be achieved by replacing block.
2Ei (0) Proof: Please refer to Appendix B-5. 
T with Pr in (30) on the premise of the relay’s transmit
power satisfying to Pr ≤ 2ETi (0) (otherwise τi = 0 holds for the Remark 10: For the proposed scheme, the conclusion pre-
conventional AF protocol). sented in Proposition 7 is as expected since when the threshold
Proof: Please refer to Appendix C-5.  SNR is sufficiently small, it consumes almost zero energy for
IT such that a single charge can support continual IT blocks. As
for the conventional scheme, it follows from Proposition 7 that
4 The Rician K factor is known as the ratio of the power of the LOS component its limiting throughput efficiency is always less than 0.5, which
to the statistical average of the overall power of the scattered components. is determined by the channel fading types as well as the system

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 CHEN et al.: ADAPTIVE DISCRETE-TIME-SWITCHING BASED ENERGY-HARVESTING RELAYING SYSTEMS
Fig. 2. Throughput efficiency versus the threshold SNR for the proposed
discrete TS-based EH AF relaying protocol.
Fig. 3. Throughput efficiency versus the threshold SNR for the proposed
discrete TS-based EH DF relaying protocol.
parameters (relevant to f (z)) and can be increased by adopting
a lower relaying power. Note that this observation is consistent
with Corollaries 2 and 6.
V. NUMERICAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In this section,5 we first demonstrate the accuracy of Proposi-
tions 1 and 3, which are based on the proposed Gamma approx-
imation. Then, we compare the limiting throughput efficiency
of the proposed scheme with the conventional one and validate
Corollaries 1, 2, 5 and 6. Furthermore, the optimal throughput
efficiency of the proposed scheme, the conventional scheme and
two other state-of-the-art schemes are presented for comparison.
Finally, we investigate the effects of the relay’s location and
the strength of LOS components on the optimal throughput
efficiency for the proposed and conventional schemes. Without
loss of generality, the system parameters setup is adopted as
Ps = 46 dBm, Pr = −4 dBm, γ0 = 60 dB, σn2 r = −70 dBm,
σn2 d = −100 dBm, d1 = 35 m, d2 = 10 m, m = 3, η = 0.5,
T = 1 s and λh = λg = 1 as in [17] unless otherwise specified.
Figs. 2 and 3 validate the accuracy of Propositions 1 and
3. Both figures present two groups of Monte-Carlo simulation
5 With the aid of Matlab, analytical results are plotted numerically based on
the developed Propositions/Corollaries, whereas simulation results are attained
using Monte-Carlo simulations of the system model and the relevant protocols.
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11071
Fig. 4. Illustration of the limiting throughput efficiency for the proposed and
the conventional AF/DF protocols.
results. One is the accurate throughput efficiency of the proposed
protocols. The other is the throughput efficiency of the proposed
protocols upon the Gamma approximation.6 As can be observed,
the latter serves as a tight approximation to the former over
the whole threshold SNR region. Furthermore, the analytical
throughput efficiency in Propositions 1 and 3 match well with the
simulation results upon the Gamma approximation. Therefore,
the developed closed-form expressions in Propositions 1 and
3 can be respectively seen as a tight approximation to the
throughput efficiency of the proposed discrete TS-based AF and
DF relaying protocols.
Fig. 4 validates Corollaries 1, 2, 5 and 6, which reveals that as
γ0 → 0, both the proposed AF and DF protocols can achieve
the maximum possible throughput efficiency of half-duplex
relaying systems (i.e., 0.5). In contrast, the throughput efficiency
of the conventional AF and DF protocols can only approach
1
Pr dm , which is determined by the system parameters as
2(1+ 2ηPs1λ )
h
well as the channel condition of the first hop and is always
less than 0.5. Notably, their performance gap can be filled by
increasing the transmit power at source, reducing the relaying
power at relay or deploying the relay node closer to the source
node in the conventional protocols.
Fig. 5 compares the throughput efficiency of the proposed dis-
crete TS-based EH AF relaying protocol with the conventional
discrete TS-based EH AF relaying protocol [17], the continuous
hybrid EH AF relaying protocol [26] and the adaptive continuous
TS-based EH AF relaying protocol [18].7 Meanwhile, a com-
prehensive comparison of the four schemes is made in Table III.
From the figure, several observations are drawn as follows:
1) The proposed discrete AF protocol outperforms the conven-
tional one in terms of the throughput efficiency over the whole
threshold SNR region. Note that this observation is in accord
with Proposition 2. Specifically, at τ = 0.4, the proposed AF
protocol can provide more than 7.4 dB threshold SNR gain over
6 In this group, we assume E (0) to be Gamma distributed with scale param-
i
eter i and shape parameter ηPs λh T /dm 1 .
7 To make a fair comparison, in Fig. 5 and the other figures in the rest of
the paper, the transmit power at relay (Pr ) of the conventional protocol is set
to its optimal value for each given threshold SNR to maximize the throughput
efficiency. Meanwhile, for each transmission block, the TS factor and the PS
factor of the continuous hybrid protocol are set to their optimal values to
maximize the throughput efficiency and the remaining accumulated energy.
 11072 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 68, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2019

TABLE III
A COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT PROTOCOLS

Fig. 5. The optimal throughput efficiency versus the threshold SNR for
different AF protocols. Fig. 6. The optimal throughput efficiency versus the threshold SNR for
different DF protocols.

the conventional one. This again demonstrates the advantage of

the proposed adaptive TS factor as well as the proposed adaptive
relaying power setups; 2) Interestingly, the proposed adaptive
discrete TS-based EH AF relaying protocol also outperforms
the adaptive continuous TS-based EH AF relaying protocol
over the whole threshold SNR region, although the continuous
protocol is more flexible owing to its continuously adjustable
TS factor setup. This is due to the fact that during a trans-
mission block with bad channel conditions, the continuous
protocol always first harvests energy and then consumes all
of the accumulated energy to conduct IT as long as the first
hop is not in outage, which however can only achieve a small
throughput efficiency at the cost of a high relaying power/energy Fig. 7. Throughput efficiency gain of the proposed discrete TS-based EH AF
relaying protocol over the conventional one.
consumption. In contrast, the proposed discrete protocol tends
to save energy when the channel conditions are bad since it
conducts either EH or IT during one whole transmission block; in the high threshold SNR region. This can be explained by the
3) Being capable of continuously adjusting both TS factor and fact that for DF mode, the minimum required relaying power to
PS factor for each transmission block, the continuous hybrid avoid IO is smaller than that for AF mode.
protocol outperforms the other three protocols owing to its Figs. 7 and 8 show the throughput efficiency gain in dB of the
highest flexibility, which however is achieved at the cost of proposed AF and DF protocols over the conventional AF and DF
very high complexity.8 However, for γ0 ≥ 64 dB, the throughput protocols, respectively. From the figures, we can observe that
efficiency of the proposed discrete AF protocol is larger than that in AF mode, the throughput efficiency gain increases with the
of the continuous hybrid AF protocol. This is again due to the threshold SNR, whereas in DF mode, the throughput efficiency
low efficiency in the energy utilization for the continuous TS gain first increases and then decreases with the threshold SNR.
manner as implemented by the hybrid protocol, which becomes This can be explained by the fact that for a low threshold
severe in the high threshold SNR region due to the high minimum SNR, both the conventional and the proposed schemes have a
required relaying power to avoid IO. Furthermore, we can draw high throughput efficiency, which is close to 0.5, and thus the
similar conclusions for DF mode from Fig. 6, which complies throughput efficiency gain is small. On the other hand, for a
with Proposition 4. One difference is that the continuous hybrid high threshold SNR, the first-hop channel tends to suffer from
DF protocol still outperforms the proposed discrete DF protocol continual IO such that both the conventional and the proposed
DF protocols harvest enough energy within the continual EH
8 Note that for the hybrid protocol, both continuously adjustable TS and PS
blocks, and once the first-hop channel is not in outage, both
circuits have to be deployed at the relay in addition toa dual-hop CSI tracking
and an adaptive relaying power control. All these setups will make the cost, protocols conduct a valid IT, which leads to a small performance
signaling overheads, and complexity extremely high. gap between them. In addition, it can be observed that our

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 CHEN et al.: ADAPTIVE DISCRETE-TIME-SWITCHING BASED ENERGY-HARVESTING RELAYING SYSTEMS
Fig. 8. Throughput efficiency gain of the proposed discrete TS-based EH DF
relaying protocol over the conventional one.
Fig. 9. The optimal throughput efficiency versus the S-R distance for the
proposed and the conventional AF/DF protocols.
proposed scheme can achieve a higher throughput efficiency
gain in AF mode than in DF mode. This can be explained by
the fact that the conventional DF protocol will not execute IT if
the first-hop channel is in outage, whereas the conventional AF
protocol executes IT as long as its initial accumulated energy is
higher than a fixed value, which means that the conventional DF
protocol behaves more like our proposal than the conventional
AF protocol does.
Fig. 9 shows the effects of the location of the relay node on the
optimal throughput efficiency for the proposed and conventional
AF and DF protocols, where we set d1 + d2 ≡ 45 m. From the
figure, several observations are drawn as follows: 1) For all the
four protocols, the optimal throughput efficiency generally first
decreases and then increases as the relay node moves from the
source node to the destination node. This can be explained by
the fact that when the relay node is close to the source node or
to the destination node, the first or the second hop tends to be
free of path loss such that the throughput efficiency is improved;
2) The performance gap between the proposed scheme and the
conventional one first enlarges and then shrinks as the relay
node moves from the source node to the destination node, which
reveals that our proposal improves the throughput efficiency
more remarkably when the relay is located in the middle of the
source and destination nodes; 3) For both the proposed adaptive
TS scheme and the conventional one, the throughput efficiency
for DF mode is better than that for AF mode, which is as expected
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11073
Fig. 10. The optimal throughput efficiency versus the threshold SNR under
the Rician fading channels for the proposed and the conventional AF protocols.
Fig. 11. The optimal throughput efficiency versus the threshold SNR under
the Rician fading channels for the proposed and the conventional DF protocols.
since a DF operation can eliminate the accumulated noise at the
relay node at the cost of complexity.
Fig. 10 demonstrates the effects of the relative strength of
LOS components over scattered components on the optimal
throughput efficiency for the conventional and the proposed AF
protocols. From the figure, several observations can be drawn
as below: 1) For both the conventional and the proposed AF
protocols, when the threshold SNR is not too large (γ0 ≤ 65 dB),
strong LOS components in both the first and the second hops
can significantly enhance the throughput efficiency. This results
from the fact that when γ0 is relatively small, stable but not nec-
essarily large channel power gains are needed for continual and
valid IT; 2) When γ0 is large enough, a stronger LOS component
in the first hop results in a faster decaying rate of the throughput
efficiency for both the conventional and the proposed AF proto-
cols. This can be explained by the fact that when γ0 is large, a
high relaying power is needed to avoid IO (the transmit power at
source is fixed). In this case, the end-to-end SNR for AF mode
γ γrd,i Ps |hi |2
can be written as γd,i = γsr,isr,i
+γrd,i +1 ≈ γsr,i = dm σ 2 ∝ |hi | ,
2
1 nr
which means that the value of |hi |2 should be large enough to
avoid IO. This can only be fulfilled when the Rician K factor is
small, in which case |hi |2 can be large occasionally. Note that this
observation is consistent with Proposition 5; 3) The proposed AF
 11074 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 68, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2019

protocol still outperforms the conventional one in terms of the 4dm dm σ 2 σ 2 γ0 (γ0 +1)
where C1  1 2 nPr s λngd . Next, by taking the stochas-
throughput efficiency under the Rician fading channels. How-
tic property of z into account, the probability that the i-th block
ever, their performance gap is relatively small when both the first
in a pattern is an IT block can be given by
and the second hops have strong LOS components. This is due to
 ∞
the fact that the channel power gains in this case are stable such  
that the adaptive relaying power in our proposal is relatively sta- PrIT(i) = Pr Pr,i ≤ z, |hi |2 > a f (z, i)dz, (A.3)
0
ble and becomes similar to the fixed relaying power setup in the
conventional solution. Furthermore, we can draw similar conclu- where f (z, i) is the PDF of z for the i-th block in a pattern.
sions for DF mode from Fig. 11, which confirms Proposition 6. Based on the Gamma approximation, it can be written as
dm
1
VI. CONCLUSION − z
f (z, i) ≈ z i−1 e 2ηPs λh (dm i
1 /2ηPs λh ) /Γ(i), z > 0. (A.4)
Making full use of the CSI knowledge at the relay, we
proposed an adaptive discrete TS-based EH relaying scheme, Combining (A.2), (A.3) and (A.4), we can arrive at (20).
in which an adaptive TS factor and an adaptive relaying On the other hand, the probability that a pattern only consists
power are adopted such that the relay consumes as less energy of one single IT block can be represented by
as possible to avoid IO. Analytical results manifested that
regardless of channel fading types, our proposal can reach the Pr (L = 1) = PrIT(1), (A.5)
optimal/limiting throughput efficiency for half-duplex relaying based on which the probability that a pattern has i blocks (i ≥ 2)
systems (i.e., 0.5) for sufficiently small threshold SNR, whereas in total can be determined by
the conventional solution’s limiting throughput efficiency
is always less than 0.5. Simulation results showed that the Pr (L = i) = Pr (L = 1, 2, . . . , i − 1)
proposed scheme can provide up to 7.4 dB threshold SNR
gain over the conventional solution. Interestingly, although × Pr (L = i|L = 1, 2, . . . , i − 1)
the continuous adaptive TS scheme is more flexible owing to = Pr (L = 1, 2, . . . , i − 2)
its continuous TS factor setup, its throughput efficiency was
shown to be worse than that of the proposed adaptive discrete × Pr (L = i−1|L = 1, 2, . . . , i−2) × PrIT(i)
TS scheme over the whole threshold SNR region. = Pr (L = 1, 2, . . . , i − 2)
For future works, one interesting problem is to extend the
proposed adaptive TS scheme to full-duplex EH relaying sys- × (1 − PrIT (i − 1)) × PrIT(i)
tems [27]. For such, one has to first develop the end-to-end SNR,  i−1 

and then formulate the conditions for successful IT, based on = ··· = (1 − PrIT(n)) × PrIT(i). (A.6)
which the adaptive TS factor as well as the adaptive relaying n=1
power are redesigned to avoid IO. Finally, the distribution of the
Combining (A.5) and (A.6), we can arrive at (19). Finally, by
initial accumulated energy at the relay has to be developed to
observing that for the proposed AF protocol, τi = 0.5 holds for
characterize the throughput performance.
an IT block, whereas τi = 0 holds for an EH block, and every
pattern contains only one IT block, we can achieve (18).
APPENDIX A A-2: Proof of Proposition 3
A-1: Proof of Proposition 1 The derivation procedures of the throughput efficiency for
First we consider a fixed initial accumulated energy (Ei (0)) the proposed DF protocol are similar to that for the proposed
for a general transmission block and define z  2ETi (0) . For the AF protocol. Specifically, by firstly considering a fixed initial
proposed AF protocol, the probability that this block is an IT accumulated energy for a general transmission block as before
block can be written as and noting that y  |gi |2 is independent of x  |hi |2 for the
proposed DF protocol, the probability that this block is an IT
 ∞  ∞ − λ1 x − λ1g y
  e h e block can be written as
Pr Pr,i ≤ z, |hi | > a =
2
dxdy,    
λh λg
b a
Pr Pr,i ≤ z, |hi |2 ≥ a = Pr (Pr,i ≤ z) × Pr |hi |2 ≥ a
(A.1)
 ∞ − λ1g y  ∞ − λ1 x
e e h

where b  2 σnd γ0 (Ps x+d1 σnr )

dm 2 m 2
x  |hi | , and y  |gi | .
, 2 2 = dy × dx
z(Ps x−γ0 dm1 σ nr )
2
b λg a λh
Then, by making use of [23, Eq. (3.324.1)], we can arrive at m 2
dm 2
1 σnr γ0 d2 σnd γ0
− −
  1 dm σ 2 γ0
− 1 Psnλ r
dm σn
2 γ
− 2 zλgd
0
= e Ps λ h zλg . (A.7)
Pr Pr,i ≤ z, |hi |2 > a = e h
λh
   dm σ 2 γ
C1 λh C1 where b  2 znd 0 . Next, by combining (A.7), (A.3) and (A.4),
× K1 , (A.2) we can arrive at (26) with the help of [23, Eq. (3.478.4)]. The
z zλh
rest of the proof is the same at that in Appendix A-1.

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 CHEN et al.: ADAPTIVE DISCRETE-TIME-SWITCHING BASED ENERGY-HARVESTING RELAYING SYSTEMS 11075

APPENDIX B dm 2
1 σn r γ 0
dm 2
2 σn d γ 0
where p  P s λh and q  P r λg . Next, we have
B-1: Proof of Corollary 1
ηPs λh 1
Combining (A.1) and (A.3), we can arrive at τL → =  (B.9)
Pr dm
1 + 2ηP λ
s h Pr dm
2 1 + 2ηP 1

1 d2 σnr σnd γ0 (γ0 + 1) 1

dm m 2 2
s λh
 ∞  ∞ − −λ x
1 zPs λg x h
as γ0 → 0. This completes the proof.
PrIT(i) = e dx
0 0 λh B-5: Proof of Proposition 7
dm 2 First we provide the derivation of the limiting throughput
1 σnr γ0 dm σn2 γ
0
− − 2 λg zd efficiency for the proposed AF and DF protocols, in which
×e λ P
h s f (z, i)dz. (B.1) dm σ 2 γ0 (Ps x+dm σ 2 ) d m σ 2 γ0
b  2 z(P nd 1
s x−γ0 d1 σnr )
m 2
nr
for AF mode while b  2 znd for
Next, as γ0 → 0, (B.1) leads to DF mode. Regardless of channel fading types, the probability
 ∞ − λ1 x  ∞ that a transmission block is an IT block can be written as
e h  ∞ ∞
PrIT(i) → dx f (z, i)dz = 1. (B.2)  
0 λh 0 Pr Pr,i ≤ z, |hi | > a =
2
f (x)f (y)dxdy. (B.10)
By combining (B.2), (18) and (19), as γ0 → 0, the throughput b a

efficiency can be expressed as As γ0 → 0, the lower integral bounds of both x  |hi |2 and
0.5 0.5 y  |gi |2 in (B.10) approach to zero such that
τ = ∞ → = 0.5. (B.3)  ∞ ∞
Pr (L = i) × i 1 + 0 + 0 + ···  
i=1 Pr Pr,i ≤ z, |hi |2 > a → f (x)f (y)dxdy = 1.
This completes the proof. Additionally, note that (B.2) holds 0 0
regardless of the distribution of z  2Ei (0)/T . Therefore, the (B.11)
proof here does not rely on the Gamma approximation. Next, substituting (B.11) into (A.3), we have PrIT(i) → 1. The
B-2: Proof of Corollary 2 rest of the proof is the same as that in Appendix B-1.
It follows from [17] that the throughput efficiency of the Now we turn to the limiting throughput efficiency of the
conventional AF protocol can be expressed as conventional AF and DF protocols. Regardless of channel fading

a types, the throughput efficiency can be determined by
− + cλd
 ∞    
e cλg
h
ad + bc τ = 0.5 × Pr Pr,i ≤ Pr ≤ z, |hi |2 > a
τ=  exp − − x dx, (B.4)  
2 1 + 2ηP
Pr dm c2 x
= 0.5 × Pr (Pr ≤ z) × Pr Pr,i ≤ Pr , |hi |2 > a , (B.12)
1 0
s λh

where a  Ps dm2 σnd γ0 , b  d1 d2 σnr σnd γ0 , c  Ps Pr , and

2 m m 2 2 where z denotes 2Ei (0)/T for a general transmission block as
d  Pr d1 σnr γ0 . As γ0 → 0, we have
m 2 before. Next, following a similar process in our derivation of
∞ (B.11), we can determine that Pr (Pr,i ≤ Pr , |hi |2 > a) → 1 as
exp (−x) dx 1 γ0 → 0. Inserting this conclusion into (B.12), we can arrive at
τ → 0 =  . (B.5)
Pr dm
2 1 + 2ηPs λh 1
2 1 + 2ηP
Pr dm
1 (32), which completes the proof.
s λh

This completes the proof. APPENDIX C

B-3: Proof of Corollary 5 C-1: Proof of Corollary 3
Combining (A.7) and (A.3), we can arrive at For the proposed AF protocol, given the initial accumulated
 ∞   m 2  
d1 σnr dm σ 2 energy of the i-th block (Ei (0)), it follows from (10) and (12)
PrIT(i) = exp − + 2 nd γ0 f (z, i)dz. that the throughput efficiency of this block can be written as
0 Ps λ h λg z

(B.6) 0, if Pr,i > 2ETi (0) or |hi |2 ≤ a,
Next, as γ0 → 0, (B.6) leads to τi =
 ∞ 0.5, if Pr,i ≤ 2ETi (0) , |hi |2 > a
 
PrIT(i) → f (z, i)dz = 1. (B.7) 2Ei (0)
0 = 0.5 × Pr Pr,i ≤ , |hi |2 > a . (C.1)
T
The rest of the proof is the same as that in Appendix B-1.
Additionally, note that (B.7) holds regardless of the distribution Furthermore, according to (A.2) and [22, Eq. (9.7.2)], we have
⎛  ⎞
of z, and thus the proof here does not rely on the Gamma 
m 2
dm 2  2dm dm σ 2 σ 2 T
⎜ d1 σnr σ
2 nd T  1 2 nr nd ⎟
approximation. ⎜
−⎝ + + ⎟ γ0
⎠
Ps λh 2Ei (0)λg Ei (0)Ps λh λg
B-4: Proof of Corollary 6 τi → e
A tight lower bound of the throughput efficiency for the
conventional DF protocol can be written as[17]    14
1 π 2dm m 2 2
1 d2 σnr σnd T
× γ0 2
, (C.2)
ηPs λh e−p−q 8 Ei (0)Ps λh λg
τL = −p + 2ηP λ
, (B.8)
Pr dm
1 e s h as γ0 → ∞. This completes the proof.

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 11076 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 68, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2019

2 σnd γ0 (Ps x+d1 σnr )

dm 2 m 2
C-2: Proof of Corollary 4
where b  . Next, as γ0 → ∞, by mak-
When Pr ≤ 2ETi (0) , IT is executed for the conventional AF z(Ps x−γ0 dm1 σn r )
2

protocol. However, a valid IT requires that the first-hop channel ing use of [22, Eq. (9.7.1)] and then noting that − (1+K
λh
h )x
+
 
(1+Kg )y
is not in outage, and the minimum required relaying power to 2 Kh (1+Kh )x
λh → − (1+K
λh
h )x
and − λg +2 Kg (1+Kg )y
λg →
avoid the IO is smaller than or equal to the fixed preset relaying (1+K )y
− λg g , one can show that
power. Therefore, when Pr ≤ 2ETi (0) , we have
  
0, if Pr,i > Pr or |hi |2 ≤ a, Pr Pr,i ≤ z, |hi |2 > a →
τi =
0.5, if Pr,i ≤ Pr , |hi |2 > a  ∞  ∞ −
(1+Kg )y
  (1 + Kg ) e−Kg e λg

= 0.5 × Pr Pr,i ≤ Pr , |hi |2 > a . (C.3)  

a b λg Kg (1+Kg )y
2π2 λg
The rest of the proof is the same as that in Appendix C-1.
C-3: Proof of Corollary 7 −
(1+Kh )x
For the proposed DF protocol, given the initial accumulated (1 + Kh ) e−Kh e λh
×   dydx. (C.7)
energy of the i-th block (Ei (0)), it follows from (12) and (17) λh Kh (1+Kh )x
that the throughput efficiency of this block can be written as 2π2 λh

0, if Pr,i > 2ETi (0) or |hi |2 < a,
τi = Furthermore, using [23, Eq. (3.381.3)] and [22, Eq. (6.5.32)],
0.5, if Pr,i ≤ 2ETi (0) , |hi |2 ≥ a we can arrive at
 
2Ei (0)
= 0.5 × Pr Pr,i ≤ , |hi | ≥ a .
2
(C.4)   (1 + Kh ) e−Kh −Kg
T Pr Pr,i ≤ z, |hi |2 > a → 1
4πλh (Kh Kg ) 4
Next, inserting (A.7) into (C.4), we can arrive at (28), which  
completes the proof. γ 0 dm 2
1 σnr
(1 + Kh ) x +
C-4: Proof of Corollary 8  ∞ − Ps
When Pr ≤ 2ETi (0) , IT will be executed for the conventional × e λ h
DF protocol if |hi |2 ≥ a. However, a valid IT requires that the 0
minimum required relaying power to avoid the IO is not larger ⎛   ⎞− 41
than the fixed preset relaying power. Therefore, we have γ 0 dm 2
1 σnr
⎜ (1 + K h ) x + ⎟
⎧ Ps
⎨0, if Pr,i > Pr or |hi |2 < a, ×⎜
⎝
⎟
⎠
λh
τi =
⎩0.5, if P ≤ P , |h |2 ≥ a
r,i r i
 
  2 σnd γ0 (1 + Kg ) Ps x + γ0 d1 σnr + d1 σnr
dm 2 m 2 m 2
= 0.5 × Pr Pr,i ≤ Pr , |hi |2 ≥ a . (C.5) −
e λg zPs x
Next, according to (A.7), we can arrive at (29), which completes ×    14 dx.
the proof. d2 σnd γ0 (1 + Kg ) Ps x + γ0 d1 σnr + d1 σnr
m 2 m 2 m 2

C-5: Proof of Proposition 5 λg zPs x

Note that (C.1) is still applicable for the proposed AF pro- (C.8)
tocol under the Rician fading channels. Thus, to derive the
decaying rate of τi as γ0 → ∞, we first obtain the decaying γ0 d m 2
1 σnr − 2
1
1 σnr  d1 σnr
Note that γ0 dm and (x + ) →
2 m 2
rate of Pr (Pr,i ≤ z, |hi |2 > a) with Pr,i given by (9). For such, Ps
considering the PDFs of |hi |2 and |gi |2 under the Rician fading γ dm σ 2
( 0 P1 s nr )− 2
1
hold as γ0 → ∞. One can further show that
channels, we can rewrite Pr (Pr,i ≤ z, |hi |2 > a) as
   
Pr Pr,i ≤ z, |hi |2 > a Pr Pr,i ≤ z, |hi |2 > a

  (1 + Kg ) y 1 σnr γ0 (1+Kh ) d2 σnd γ0 (1 + Kg )

dm 2 m 2
∞ ∞ −Kg −
(1 + Kg ) e λg
−Kh−Kg−
λ h Ps
−
λg z
= e (1+Kh ) e
a b λg →  m 2 41  m 2 21
d σ K K (1+K )(1+Kg )γ0 γ0 d1 σnr
  
(1 + Kh ) x 4πλh 2 nd h gλh λg z h Ps
Kg (1 + Kg ) y (1 + Kh ) e−Kh − λh
× I0 2 e (1 + Kh ) x dm
1 σnr d2 σnd (1 + Kg ) γ0
2 m 2 2
λg λh  ∞ − −
⎛  ⎞ × e λh Ps zλg x 1
x 4 dx .
Kh (1 + Kh ) x ⎠ !0 "# $
× I0 ⎝2 dydx, (C.6)
λh ψ
(C.9)

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 CHEN et al.: ADAPTIVE DISCRETE-TIME-SWITCHING BASED ENERGY-HARVESTING RELAYING SYSTEMS 11077

⎛ ⎞
Next, according to [23, Eq. (3.471.9)] and [22, Eq. (9.7.2)], as dm 2
1 σnr (1 + Kh ) dm
2 σnd (1 + Kg ) ⎠
2
−Kh −Kg −⎝ +
γ0 → ∞, we have Ps Ωh zΩg
γ0
− 21
e γ0
  58   14 .
dm1 σnr d2 σnd (1 + Kg )
2 m 2
ψ→2
3
γ04 Kh Kg (1 + Kh ) (1 + Kg ) dm 2 m 2
1 σnr d2 σnd
Ps zλg (1 + Kh ) 4π
Ωh Ωg Ps z
 − 41 (C.14)
16dm1 d2 σnr σnd (1 + Kh ) (1 + Kg )
m 2 2
× Combining (C.14) and (C.4), we can arrive at (31).
Ps zλh λg π 2
⎛  ⎞ For the conventional DF protocol, equation (C.5) is still
 m m 2
⎜ 
2
 d1 d2 σnr σnd (1 + Kh ) (1 + Kg ) ⎟ applicable under the Rician fading channels. Next, comparing
⎜
− ⎝2  γ0 ⎟
⎠ (C.4) with (C.5), we can complete the proof.
Ps zλh λg
×e .
(C.10) APPENDIX D
Combining (C.9), (C.10) and (C.1), we can arrive at (30). PROOF OF PROPOSITION 2
For the conventional AF protocol, (C.3) is still applicable In the following, for the conventional AF protocol (denoted
under the Rician fading channels. Next, comparing (C.1) with by C protocol), Pr,c represents the fixed preset relaying power,
(C.3), we can complete the proof. whereas ECi (0) denotes the initial accumulated energy of the
C-6: Proof of Proposition 6 i-th block in a valid pattern. For the proposed AF protocol
Note that (C.4) is still applicable for the proposed DF protocol (denoted by P protocol), Pr,i represents the adaptive relaying
under the Rician fading channels. Thus, to derive the decay- power of the i-th block as before, whereas EPi (0) denotes the
ing rate of τi as γ0 → ∞, we first obtain the decaying rate initial accumulated energy of the i-th block in a valid pattern.
of Pr (Pr,i ≤ z, |hi |2 ≥ a) with Pr,i given by (16). For such, Now we consider a valid pattern for both protocols with the
considering the PDFs of |hi |2 and |gi |2 under the Rician fading same initial accumulated energy. Since the available energy for
channels, we can rewrite Pr (Pr,i ≤ z, |hi |2 ≥ a) as harvesting during the i-th block for both protocols is the same
 
with the same fading environment ( ηPsd|hmi | T ), we can conclude
2

Pr Pr,i ≤ z, |hi |2 ≥ a = 1
⎛  ⎞ that the equation ECi (0) = EPi (0) will hold until any protocol
 ∞
(1 + Kh ) e−Kh − (1+K h )x K (1 + K ) x executes IT. Next, there are three possible cases.
I0 ⎝2 ⎠ dx
Ωh h h
e Case 1: At the n-th block, P protocol executes IT first.
a Ωh Ωh
! "# $ In this case, for P protocol, the valid pattern ends with the n-th
ψh block, whereas one or more blocks are needed for C protocol to
    end the valid pattern.
∞
(1+Kg ) e−Kg − (1+K g )y Kg (1+Kg ) y Case 2: At the n-th block, C protocol executes IT first.
× e Ωg I0 2 dy ,
b Ωg Ωg There are two possible reasons why P protocol does not
! "# $ execute IT during the n-th block. One reason is that |hn |2 ≤ a.
ψg
If so, C protocol’s IT operation during the n-th block will be
(C.11) invalid due to the IO in the first hop. The other reason is that
P T P T
dm σ 2 γ EPn (0) < r,n while ECn (0) ≥ r,c 2 . In this case, since the
where b  2 znd 0 . Now we concentrate on ψh . As γ0 → 2
equation ECi (0) = EPi (0) still holds at the beginning of the
∞, by making use of [22, Eq. (9.7.1)] and noting that n-th block, we can conclude that Pr,c < Pr,n , which means that
− (1+K
Ωh
h )x
+2 Kh (1+Kh )x
Ωh → − (1+K
Ωh
h )x
, we have Pr,c does not reach the minimum required relaying power for a
 ∞
valid IT during the n-th block. Therefore, for both cases/reasons,
(1 + Kh ) e−Kh −
(1+Kh )x
the IT operation of the C protocol during the n-th block is
x− 4 dx. (C.12)
1
ψh →  14 e Ωh
√ invalid. Notably, at the end of the n-th block, the inequality
2 πΩh Kh (1+KΩh
h) a
P T
ECn (T ) = EPn (0) − r,c 2 < EPn (T ) holds.
Furthermore, using [23, Eq. (3.381.3)] and [22, Eq. (6.5.32)], In the same way, we can further conclude that after the n-th
we can arrive at block, any IT operation that C protocol executes ahead of P
(1+Kh )a
protocol will be invalid until P protocol executes IT.
−K − Case 3: At the n-th block, P protocol and C protocol simul-
e h Ωh
ψh → . (C.13)

√ aKh (1+Kh ) 14 taneously execute IT for the first time.
2 π Ωh In this case, for P protocol, the valid pattern ends with the n-th
block, whereas for C protocol, only if its fixed preset relaying
In a similar way, one can show that as γ0 → ∞, ψg → power reaches the minimum required relaying power for a valid
(1+Kg )b
e
−Kg −
Ωg IT (i.e., Pr,c ≥ Pr,n ), it ends its valid pattern at the same time.
√ bKg (1+Kg ) 1 such that (C.11) can be rewritten as
2 π( Ωg )4 Otherwise, the C protocol needs one or more blocks to end its
  valid pattern.
Pr Pr,i ≤ z, |hi |2 ≥ a → The proof is completed by combining the three cases above.

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 11078 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 68, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2019
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Weiyu Chen received the B.Sc. degree in commu-
nication engineering from the National University
of Defense Technology, Changsha, China, in 2018,
where he is currently working toward the M.Sc. de-
gree with the Department of Communication Engi-
neering, School of Electronic Science. His research
interests include energy harvesting, backscatter com-
munications, and cooperative communications.
Haiyang Ding (M’13) received the B.Sc. degree
in communications engineering from Xi’an Com-
munications Institute, Xi’an, China, in 2003, the
M.Sc. degree (with Hons.) in electrical engineering
from the Beijing University of Technology, Beijing,
China, in 2006, and the Ph.D. degree (with Hons.)
in telecommunications engineering from Xidian Uni-
versity, Xi’an, China, in 2013. From 2016 to 2017,
he was a Visiting Scholar with the Department of
Electrical Engineering, Columbia University, New
York, USA. Since August 2017, he has been with the
School of Information and Communications, National University of Defense
Technology (NUDT), where he is currently an Associate Professor. His research
interests include backscatter communications, energy harvesting, cooperative
communications, and cognitive radio systems. Currently, he serves as an Ed-
itor for the IEEE OPEN JOURNAL OF THE COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY and
KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems, and he has been a
Guest Editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COGNITIVE COMMUNICATIONS
AND NETWORKING. He was the recipient of the Research in Motion Wireless
Research Scholarship from Xidian University in 2012, the IEEE COMMUNICA-
TIONS LETTERS Exemplary Reviewer Certificate in 2013, the IEEE TRANSAC-
TIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS Exemplary Reviewer Certificate in 2014, and the
Excellent Ph.D. Dissertation Certificate of Shaanxi Province in 2015.
Shilian Wang received the B.S. degree and Ph.D.
degree in information and communication engineer-
ing from the National University of Defense Technol-
ogy in 1998 and 2004, respectively. Since 2004, he has
been with the School of Electronic Science, National
University of Defense Technology, as a Lecturer, an
Associate Professor, and a Professor. From 2008 to
2009, he was a Visiting Scholar with the Department
of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Columbia
University (CU), New York, NY. His research
interests are in wireless communications and signal
processing, specifically in the spread spectrum and the low-probability of
interception communications.
 CHEN et al.: ADAPTIVE DISCRETE-TIME-SWITCHING BASED ENERGY-HARVESTING RELAYING SYSTEMS 11079

Daniel Benevides da Costa (S’04–M’08–SM’14) Fengkui Gong (M’11) was born in Shandong
was born in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil, in 1981. He Province, China, in 1979. He received the M.Sc. and
received the B.Sc. degree in telecommunications Ph.D. degrees from Xidian University, Xi’an, China,
from the Military Institute of Engineering (IME), Rio in 2004 and 2007, respectively. From October 2011 to
de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2003, and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. October 2012, he worked as a Visiting Scholar with
degrees in electrical engineering area: telecommuni- the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineer-
cations, from the University of Campinas, SP, Brazil, ing, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada. He
in 2006 and 2008, respectively. From 2008 to 2009, he is currently a Professor with the State Key Labora-
was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with INRS-EMT, tory of Integrated Services Networks, Department of
University of Quebec, Montreal, QC, Canada. Since Communication Engineering, Xidian University. His
2010, he has been with the Federal University of research interests include cooperative communica-
Ceará, where he is currently an Associate Professor. tion, distributed space-time coding, digital video broadcasting systems, satellite
Prof. da Costa is currently an Executive Editor for the IEEE COMMUNICA- communication, and 4G/5G techniques.
TIONS LETTERS and an Editor for the IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS AND
TUTORIALS, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS, IEEE TRANSACTIONS
ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, IEEE ACCESS, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COGNI-
TIVE COMMUNICATIONS AND NETWORKING, and EURASIP Journal on Wireless
Communications and Networking. He has also served as an Associate Technical
Editor for the IEEE COMMUNICATIONS MAGAZINE. From 2012 to 2017 and
from Mar. 2019 to Aug. 2019, he was an Editor for the IEEE COMMUNICATIONS
LETTERS. He has currently served as an Area Editor for the IEEE OPEN JOURNAL
OF THE COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY area: Green, Cognitive, and Intelligent
Communications and Networks, and as a Guest Editor for several Journal
Special Issues. He has been involved with the organizing committee of several
conferences. He is currently the Latin American Chapters Coordinator of the
IEEE Vehicular Technology Society. Also, he acts as a Scientific Consultant
of the National Council of Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq),
Brazil, and he is a Productivity Research Fellow of CNPq. Currently, he is the
Vice-Chair of America’s IEEE Technical Committee on Cognitive Networks
(TCCN), Director of the TCCN Newsletter, and Chair of the Special Interest
Group on Energy-Harvesting Cognitive Radio Networks in IEEE TCCN.
Prof. da Costa is the recipient of four conference paper awards. His Ph.D.
thesis was awarded the Best Ph.D. Thesis in electrical engineering by the
Brazilian Ministry of Education (CAPES) at the 2009 CAPES Thesis Con-
test. He received the Exemplary Reviewer Certificate of the IEEE WIRELESS
COMMUNICATIONS LETTERS in 2013, the Exemplary Reviewer Certificate of
the IEEE COMMUNICATIONS LETTERS in 2016 and 2017, the Certificate of
Appreciation of Top Associate Editor for outstanding contributions to the IEEE
TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY in 2013, 2015, and 2016, the
Exemplary Editor Award of the IEEE COMMUNICATIONS LETTERS in 2016, and
the Outstanding Editor Award of the IEEE ACCESS in 2017. He is a Distinguished
Lecturer of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society. He is a member of the IEEE
Communications Society and IEEE Vehicular Technology Society.

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