Abstract
Two important issues have arisen in 5G wireless communications: spectral efficiency
and energy efficiency. The existing wireless communication architectures and
technologies may not be able to address these two issues at the same time for 5G
multi-tier networks where users in different tiers have different priorities for channel
access. In this article, we first present the motivation for our proposal of a new
paradigm of integrated spectrum and energy harvesting for 5G wireless networks,
in which spectrum and energy resources are efficiently collected and intelligently
managed. Then we present an integrated spectrum and energy harvesting 5G
architecture for dealing with current challenges. After that, based on the proposed
architecture, we provide integrated spectrum and energy control mechanisms for
typical 5G networks. Finally, we propose a cooperative medium access control
scheme for heterogeneous 5G networks that attracts cooperative sensing participants
with heterogeneous energy harvesting capabilities. Illustrative results demonstrate
significant energy and spectrum efficiency for 5G wireless networks.