Performance of EH Protocols in Two-Hop Networks With a Battery-Assisted EH Relay.

In this paper, we compare the performance of time-switching relaying (TSR) and power-splitting relaying (PSR) protocols in two-hop networks with a battery-assisted energy-harvesting (EH) amplify-and-forward relay. In this battery-assisted relay framework, the EH relay augments the harvested energy with energy drawn from a battery. Using expressions derived for throughput and average battery energy consumption, we investigate maximization of throughput for given battery energy availability per time slot and minimization of battery energy consumption for target throughput requirement. When only statistical channel knowledge is available, PSR results in better throughput performance at practical signal-to-noise ratios. However, in the typical low battery energy and low target throughput regime, it is TSR that is more battery energy efficient. When second-hop instantaneous channel knowledge is available, we observe dramatical energy savings that increases lifetime of nodes. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate accuracy of the derived expressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]