Agenda

Energy harvesting wireless networks: A new frontier for communication and information theory

Aylin Yener
Pennsylvania State University

Wireless communication networks composed of devices that can harvest energy from nature will lead to the green future of wireless, as energy harvesting offers the possibility of perpetual network operation without adverse effects on the environment. By developing effective and robust communication techniques to be used under energy harvesting conditions, some of the communication devices in a heterogeneous network can even be taken off the grid. Energy harvesting brings new considerations to system level design of wireless communication networks, leading to new insights. These include randomness and intermittency of available energy, as well as additional system issues to be concerned about such as energy storage capacity and processing complexity. The goal of this talk is to furnish the audience with fundamental design principles of energy harvesting wireless communication networks which is an emerging area. The focus will be on identifying optimum transmission scheduling policies in various settings, and the ensuing algorithmic solutions. Time permitting we will also go into the information theory of energy harvesting communications, which brings in new challenges taking into account energy availability and storage at the channel use level.

Biography

Aylin Yener is a professor of Electrical Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA since 2010, where she joined the faculty as an assistant professor in 2002. During the academic year 2008-2009, she was a Visiting Associate Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, CA. Her research interests are in information theory, communication theory and network science with recent emphasis on green communications, information security and networked systems.

She received the NSF CAREER award in 2003, the best paper award in Communication Theory in the IEEE International Conference on Communications in 2010, the Penn State Engineering Alumni Society (PSEAS) Outstanding Research Award in 2010, the IEEE Marconi Prize paper award in 2014, the PSEAS Premier Research Award in 2014, and the Leonard A. Doggett Award for Outstanding Writing in Electrical Engineering at Penn State in 2014. She is a fellow of the IEEE. Dr. Yener is an elected member of the board of governors of the IEEE Information Theory Society for the term 2015-2017.

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