Cache-aided Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer (SWIPT) with Relay Selection

In this paper, we investigate the performance of cache-assisted simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) cooperative systems, in which one source communicates with one destination via the aid of multiple relays. In order to prolong the relays’ serving time, the relays are assumed to be equipped with a cache memory and energy harvesting (EH) capability. Based on the time-splitting mechanism, we analyze the effect of caching on the system performance in terms of the serving throughput and the stored energy at the relay. In particular, two optimization problems are formulated to maximize the relay-destination throughput and the energy stored at the relay subject to some quality-of-service (QoS) constraints, respectively. By using the KKT conditions and with the help of the Lambert function, closed-form solutions are obtained for the two formulated problems. In order to further improve the performance, a relay selection policy is introduced to select the best relay based on either the maximum throughput between the relays’ and destination link or maximum stored energy at the relay, for conveying information to the destination. Numerical results reveal significant benefits of incorporating caching capabilities to SWIPT systems, in terms of improved serving time, throughput and energy harvesting performance at the relays.