IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 20, NO.
2, SECOND QUARTER 2018
Beamforming in Wireless Energy Harvesting
Communications Systems: A Survey
Yamen Alsaba , Sharul Kamal Abdul Rahim, Senior Member, IEEE, and Chee Yen Leow, Member, IEEE
Abstract—Wireless energy harvesting (EH) is a promising
solution to prolong lifetime of power-constrained networks such
as military and sensor networks. The high sensitivity of energy
transfer to signal decay due to path loss and fading, promotes
multi-antenna techniques like beamforming as the candidate
transmission scheme for EH networks. Exploiting beamforming
in EH networks has gained overwhelming interest, and lot of lit-
erature has appeared recently regarding this topic. The objective
of this paper is to point out the state-of-the-art research activity
on beamforming implementation in EH wireless networks. We
first review the basic concepts and architecture of EH wireless
networks. In addition, we also discuss the effects of beamforming
transmission scheme on system performance in EH wireless com-
munication. Furthermore, we present a comprehensive survey
of multi-antenna EH communications. We cover the support-
ing network architectures like broadcasting, relay, and cognitive
radio networks with the various beamforming deployment within
the network architecture. We classify the different beamform-
ing approaches in each network topology according to its design
objective such as increasing the throughput, enhancing the energy
transfer efficiency, and minimizing the total transmit power, with
paying special attention to exploiting the physical layer secu-
rity. We also survey major advances as well as open issues,
challenges, and future research directions in multi-antenna EH
communications.
Index Terms—Energy harvesting, beamforming, wireless pow-
ered communication network, simultaneous wireless information
and power transfer, wireless power transfer, physical layer
security.
I. I NTRODUCTION
NERGY harvesting (EH) technique has lately gained a lot
E of attention in both academia and industry, as this new
green communication technique provides a promising solution
for prolonging the lifetime of energy-constrained communica-
tion networks [1]–[4] such as military communications, sensor
networks [5], submarines, and medical implants [6]. Many
types of EH schemes according to the energy source have
been considered, like solar, piezoelectric, wind, hydroelectric,
and wireless radio frequency (RF) signals EH [7].
Manuscript received August 22, 2017; revised November 26, 2017
and January 2, 2018; accepted January 22, 2018. Date of publication
January 25, 2018; date of current version May 22, 2018. This work was
supported in part by H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015 under Grant 690750, and in
part by the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi
Malaysia under Grant 4F818, Grant 4J210, Grant 4F901, Grant 4J213, and
Grant 12H35. (Corresponding author: Yamen Alsaba.)
The authors are with the Wireless Communication Centre (WCC), Faculty
of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai
Johor, Malaysia (e-mail: yamensaba@yahoo.com; sharulkamal@fke.utm.my;
bruceleow@fke.utm.my).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/COMST.2018.2797886
1553-877X  c 2018 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
1329
Both stability and the availability of wireless signals (TV
broadcasting, mobile base stations, etc. . .), in addition to the
dependence of the natural energy on location, climate and
time, nominate wireless EH (the ability of transforming the
wireless RF signals into DC voltage to charge the device
battery) as the best EH scheme. Yet, this emerging tech-
nology requires a shift in the system architecture and its
power-information resource allocation strategies to meet its
new demands [8].
Three main transmit schemes can be distinguished in wire-
less EH networks. The first scheme, is Wireless Power Transfer
(WPT) [9], where a power transmitter simply transfers power
to EH receivers to charge their batteries, without any infor-
mation exchange. The second scheme is Wireless Powered
Communication Network (WPCN) [10], [11], where the EH
receiver uses the power harvested in the downlink in the
first time slot, to transmit its information in the second time
slot. The third transferring scheme, is Simultaneous Wireless
Information and Power Transfer (SWIPT) [12], in this scheme
a hybrid transmitter is transferring wireless energy and infor-
mation signals using the same waveform to multiple EH and
ID receivers. SWIPT has attracted increasing interest as it
exploits both information and power concurrently yielding
higher information-energy transmission efficiency. Figure 1,
illustrates the different EH transmission schemes.
The receiver architecture should be reconsidered in order to
adopt to the new wireless EH scheme. Two distinct types of
receivers can be found in EH-enabled networks separated and
collocated receivers. In separated receivers case, the receivers
are either doing EH (EH receivers) or Information Decoding
(Id) (ID receivers). While in the collocated receiver type, the
receiver can do both EH and ID processes. Depending on how
the receiver coordinates between the EH and the ID processes,
the receiver types in the collocated receiver case can be clas-
sified into four receiver architectures. Ideal receiver, which
means the ability to perform both EH and ID processes simul-
taneously. Of course, this architecture has ideal performance,
but due to circuits limitation it cannot be realized. Power
Splitting (PS) receiver [13], where the received signal power
is divided by a certain ratio referred to as power splitting
ratio between the EH and ID processes. Time Switching (TS)
receiver [14], the receiver divides the receiving time between
EH and ID processes by a time switching factor, where in the
first time slot the receiver performs EH process, and in the
second time slot it does the ID process. Antenna Selections
(AS) receiver, in this architecture the receiver has multiple
antennas, and a subset of antennas are assigned to decode
1330 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 20, NO. 2, SECOND QUARTER 2018
Fig. 1. Illustration of the described EH transmission schemes: in SWIPT, the
base station provides the user with information and power simultaneously, in
WPCN, users harvest the power signal in downlink to send information in the
uplink, while in WPT, no information exchange the base station is a power
charger only.
the information, while the remaining are dedicated for EH.
Figure 2, illustrates the different receivers’ architectures.
A new opportunistic receiver architecture scheme for
multiple-input single-output (MISO) SWIPT EH-enabled
Fig. 2. Illustration of the described receiver structures. ρ denotes the power
splitting ratio of dividing the signal power in the PS receiver, α denotes the
time switching factor between ID and EH processes in TS receiver.
system with no need to channel condition information at
the transmitter has been introduced in [15]. The principle of
the proposed opportunistic receiver scheme is to start har-
vesting energy when the channel energy exceeds a certain
level by employing random beamforming at the transmit-
ter to generate artificial channel fading. The performance of
the proposed low-complexity receiver is investigated by com-
paring its achievable average information rate and energy
harvested with the conventional periodic TS-based receiver,
the new design shows better rate-energy trade-off, especially
in the case where the harvested energy level is large enough.
A. Beamforming in Energy Harvesting Wireless Networks
In order to be able to harvest energy, the receiver should
have an EH circuit, which is mainly a rectifier [16], [17].
Unlike information decoding circuits, the sensitivity of the
EH process is quite low (−10dBm − 30dBm) [14]. The
need of higher signal energy levels makes the EH pro-
cess high sensitive to signal decay due to propagation dis-
tance, reflection, scattering, and fading (which is normally
higher in the omni-directional transmission case) motivates
the use of multi-antenna techniques like beamforming in EH
enabled communication networks, for its appealing feature
of increasing both wireless power and information transfer
efficiency [18], [19].
Beamforming has been widely considered in conventional
wireless networks (with no EH) to exploit the spatial domain
ALSABA et al.: BEAMFORMING IN WIRELESS EH COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS: SURVEY
and gain extra degrees of freedom. Generating pencil beams
to focus the signal in a narrow direction yielding many
advantages such as:
• Improve the efficiency of wireless transmission: beam-
forming increases the signal to interference and noise
ratio (SINR) by focusing the signal toward the intended
receiver, and hence, achieves high data rate by reducing
the multipath attention and the interference.
• Increased Coverage area: due to the targeted nature of
beamforming, frequencies can be reused more efficiently
allowing an increased coverage area and higher number
of users.
• Reduced interference: interference is usually caused by
omni-directional antenna transmissions which radiate in
all directions, in beamforming scheme, interference is
less likely to occur due to the directionality in transmis-
sion. This enhances both the SINR and the efficiency of
frequencies reuse.
• Provide value added services: beamforming techniques
provide some new powerful functionalities and applica-
tions like, higher quality of service (QoS), higher data
rate, and user localization.
• Enhanced security: beamforming provides naturally
increased security, as the signals are not transmitted in
all directions like in the conventional omni-directional
transmission. This creates an extra condition on the eaves-
droppers, meaning that they need to be at the same
location or between the two communicating devices in
order to intercept the transmission.
However, beamforming technique poses many challenges and
further requirements to be implemented like:
• SCI requirements: in order to implement beamforming
transmission scheme, the CSI of users should be acquired
at the transmitter. SCI acquisition process requires SCI
acquiring technique and feedback mechanism to pro-
vide the transmitter with the channel status of the users,
yielding higher overhead and complexity.
• Higher complexity: beamforming technique is far more
complicated than a conventional transmission scheme,
as it requires signal processing technology to be imple-
mented.
• Higher cost: due to the need to antenna arrays, in addition
to signal processing blocks, beamforming is more expen-
sive to be deployed in terms of money and consuming
power.
• Larger size: beamforming utilizes antenna arrays, mak-
ing the system’ size larger than traditional systems. This
means that large base stations are needed to make this
method efficient.
The appealing feature of beamforming high received SINR,
makes it the potential candidate transmission scheme in EH-
enabled wireless networks, as EH receivers require higher
signal level than that of the ID receiver. In a response to the
question about the optimal transmission scheme in energy EH
wireless communication systems, the problem of increasing
both energy and information transfer efficiency for the differ-
ent EH broadcasting strategies is formulated and the solutions
yield the following results.
1331
• In WPT scheme it is proved by [14] that a special
scheme of beamforming named “energy beamforming”
is the optimal transmission strategy that leads to the
achievability of the maximum harvested power.
• Beamforming is the optimal solution strategy for the
problem of maximizing the rate subject to EH and
maximum transmit power constraints for Multiple-Inputs
Multiple-Outputs (MIMO) and MISO SWIPT technique
in the case of separated receivers [14].
• In [20] a hybrid form of beamforming is proved optimal
for MISO SWIPT with PS-type receiver in two and three
users’ case.
Furthermore, in physical layer security, beamforming is proved
with high significance to this aim. Wyner [21] proved that
secrecy rate is always positive when the source-destination
channel is better compared to the source-eavesdropper chan-
nel. Particularly, by exploiting the multi-antennas’ extra
degrees of freedom, to enhance the SINR at the intended
destination, or to inject an artificial noise (AN) signal
in the communication channel. The AN technique guaran-
tees the information secrecy even when the channel condition
of the destination is worse than that of the eavesdropper [22].
Beamforming is more likely the optimal transmit scheme if
perfect and global CSI is available, as CSI plays a vital role
in the system performance, as channel conditions acquirement
helps the transmitter to construct the transmit beams, select
the optimal transmit scheme, and to change it adaptively as
the channel conditions change. In frequency division duplex
communication systems, a quantization codebook is used, so
the transmitter acquires the CSI, of course increasing the size
of this codebook will enhance the CSI estimation, but yet it
will increase the overhead of the feedback process. While in
time division duplex communication systems, the transmitter
estimates the CSI by taking advantage of channel reciprocity
concept. The CSI at the transmitter is either perfect, where
the transmitter has full knowledge of the channel conditions,
or imperfect CSI which can be either stochastic or deter-
ministic (worst-case). In imperfect stochastic CSI model, the
CSI uncertainty is modelled as random variables usually with
Gaussian distribution, while it is bounded by a certain thresh-
old in the imperfect deterministic CSI model. However, perfect
and imperfect CSI acquisition isn’t trivial in EH-Enabled wire-
less systems, as it isn’t necessary that the EH receiver has an
ID circuit to feedback its own CSI to the energy transmit-
ter. Furthermore, the CSI of the ID receiver in EH systems is
highly impaired because of the interference of both informa-
tion and power signals; hence its CSI might be imperfect, and
robust implementation is needed. In addition, in physical layer
security application, the CSI of the eavesdroppers is very dif-
ficult to acquire as these malicious nodes are usually hidden
and not active. Moreover, the formulation of optimal transmit
or receive beamforming weights requires higher computational
complexity than that of the conventional networks, as another
energy constraints are added in beamforming design process,
resulting in degradation in the network performance.
Table I, represents the advantages and disadvantages of
deploying beamforming in both conventional and EH-enabled
wireless networks. Many criteria have been considered in
1332 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 20, NO. 2, SECOND QUARTER 2018
TABLE I
C OMPARISON OF B EAMFORMING D EPLOYING IN C ONVENTIONAL AND EH-E NABLED W IRELESS N ETWORKS
beamforming designing in EH wireless networks, such as max-
imizing system throughput, minimizing total transmit power,
maximizing ergodic capacity, minimizing the outage probabil-
ity, and information and energy trade-off. These optimizing
objectives are usually accompanied by different practical con-
straints such as the total transmit power should be under a
certain value referred to as maximum transmit power, or the
power received at the EH receiver should more than a thresh-
old in order to initiate the EH process, this condition is referred
to as EH constraint. The SINR at the ID receiver should be
above a quality of service threshold so the ID receiver is
able to decode the information message correctly, this con-
straint normally named SINR constraint or QoS constraint. In
most of the cases the optimization problems with the joint
constraints are non-convex problems, that can be solved by
means of Semi-Definite Programming (SDP) or Semi-Definite
Relaxation (SDR) [34], Second Order Cone Programming
(SOCP) [35], sub-optimal algorithms, or transferring the non-
convex problem into a convex one by several techniques
like, Successive Convex Approximation (SCA) [36]. Table II
summarizes the list of acronyms used in the paper.
B. Comparison With Related Survey Articles
In this paper, we present most of the contemporary state-
of-the-art on exploiting beamforming technique in EH-enabled
wireless communication and its physical layer security appli-
cation. Due to the importance of this topic a lot of literature
has appeared after [37], that we want to cover in order to
demonstrate the recent progress in this field. Zhao et al. [38]
focus on investigating the interference impact in EH systems,
while [19] introduces a full performance survey of WPCNs.
Physical layer security in SWIPT communication systems
is investigated by [39]. Unlike most of the surveys on EH
communication systems [37], [40], we focus on wireless multi-
antenna EH system and its applications in physical layer
security, as from the discussion above beamforming is proved
with high significance on both information and energy transfer
efficiency in EH wireless networks.
C. Organization of the Paper
The rest of this paper is organized by taking into consid-
eration the different EH-enabled network topologies where
beamforming has been deployed, while each network topol-
ogy section is classified according to the beamforming design
objective. A system model on beamforming EH commu-
nication network is provided in Section II. Section III
presents beamforming in EH-enabled broadcast channel (BC).
Section IV introduces the usage of beamforming in EH-
enabled relay channel (RC). Section V analyses the imple-
mentation of beamforming in EH-enabled Cognitive Radio
Networks (CRN). Section VI investigates the CSI requirements
and techniques for deploying beamforming in EH-enabled
communication systems. Section VII provides the research
challenges and future work concerning the application of
beamforming EH technique in the envisioned systems, and
the open research areas that need further investigation.
II. S YSTEM M ODEL
We consider a multi-user downlink EH-enabled communi-
cation system, where a base station is equipped with N >
1 antennas serves K single-antenna users. We assume that
beamforming is employed by the base station to transmit infor-
mation and power signals via SWIPT technique to ID and EH
users. Hence, the complex baseband transmitted signal at the
base station is given by

K
x= wk sk , (1)
k=1
where sk ∼ CN (0, 1) denotes the transmitted symbol and wk
is the transmit beamforming vector for user k.
Let hk denote the conjugate channel row vector between the
base station and user k multiplied by the path loss. Then, the
received signal at user k before any energy harvesting process
is expressed as
yk = hH
k x + nk , k = 1, 2, . . . , K, (2)
where nk ∼ CN (0, σk2 ) is the additive white Gaussian noise
(AWGN) introduced by the receiver antenna at user k.
The received signal will be treated according to the corre-
sponding receiver architecture. We will consider the different
receiver types: PS, TS, AS and separated-receivers architec-
tures.
A. Power-Splitting Receiver
In PS architecture, the received signal power at user k is
divided between ID and EH processes with a splitting factor
ALSABA et al.: BEAMFORMING IN WIRELESS EH COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS: SURVEY 1333

TABLE II
TABLE OF ACRONYMS

0 < ρk < 1. Then, the signal for ID at receiver k is modelled as Accordingly, the SINR for ID at the user k is expressed as
⎛ ⎞
k wk |
| hH 2
√  SINRk =
, ∀k, (9)
yID ⎝ H
k = ρk hk wk sk +
⎠
k wi si + nk + zk , ∀k,
hH | hH
k wi | +σk
(3) 2 2
i=k
i=k
and the average throughput of user k
where zk ∼ CN (0, δk2 )
is the additional AWGN introduced by Rk = αk log2 (1 + SINRk ), ∀k. (10)
RF to baseband conversion at user k.
The signal for EH is given by The harvested energy by the user k is given by
 K
 K 
  Ek = ηk (1 − αk )T | hk wk | +σk , ∀k,
H 2 2
(11)
yk = 1 − ρk
EH
hk wk sk + nk , ∀k.
H
(4)
k=1
k=1
and the average harvested power during the given duration
Accordingly, the SINR for ID at the user k is expressed as time of transmission T
 K
ρk | hH
k wk |
2 
SINRk =
, ∀k, (5) Pk = ηk (1 − αk ) | hk wk | +σk , ∀k.
H 2 2
(12)
ρk i=k | hH
k wi | +ρk σk + δk
2 2 2
k=1
and the throughput of user k
C. Antenna-Switching Receiver
Rk = log2 (1 + SINRk ), ∀k. (6) In AS scheme, we assume that each user is equipped with
M > 1 antennas. AS techniques splits the receiving antennas
The harvested power by the EH of user K is given by into two subsets. First subset is connected to the ID circuits,
 K while the second subset is connected to the EH circuits.

Pk = ηk (1 − ρk ) | hH The total signal received at user k in AS approach is
k wk | +σk , ∀k,
2 2
(7)
k=1 given by

where ηk ∈ (01] is the energy conversion efficiency factor of yk = Hk x + nk , ∀k, (13)

the EH circuits at user k. where Hk ∈ CM×N denotes the channel response between the
base station and the user k, nk ∼ CN (0, I) is a circularly
B. Time-Switching Receiver symmetric AWGN vector introduced by the receiver antenna
In TS scheme, for total transmission duration presented by a at user k, with the mean vector 0 and the covariance matrix I.
block time of T, during the first phase of duration αk T, where The signal for ID at receiver k in AS approach can be
0 < αk < 1 is the time switching parameter, the receiver k expressed as
decodes the own intended information message. In the remain-
k = Qk Hk x + Qk nk , ∀k,
yID (14)
ing time of duration (1 − αk )T, the receiver k harvests energy
from the received signal during the given time. where Qk ∈ RM×M is the diagonal AS matrix, where the
The signal for ID at receiver k is expressed as diagonal entries are either 1 or 0. If the diagonal entry
 j, j ∈ {1, 2, . . . M} of the matrix Qk is 1, the antenna j is
k = hk wk sk +
yID k wi si + nk , ∀k.
H
hH (8) selected for ID process, otherwise this antenna is selected
i=k for EH.
1334 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 20, NO. 2, SECOND QUARTER 2018

The throughput of user k is given by E. Receiver Architecture Schemes Performance

⎛ ⎛ ⎞−1 Comparisons among the different receiver’s architectures are
⎜  carried out with respect to rate-energy region in MIMO chan-
Rk = log2 det⎝I + ⎝I + Qk Hk wi wH H H⎠
i Hk Qk nel [14]. The comparisons demonstrate that the PS architecture
i=k
attains the upper bound of the rate-energy region (provided
⎞
by the ideal receiver scheme) and thus optimal, if the process
H H⎟ of RF to baseband conversion is noise free. In practice, the
k Hk Qk ⎠. ∀k,
Qk Hk wk wH (15)
noise-free conversion condition is hard to be perfectly met.
Therefore the upper bound of the rate-energy region cannot
and harvested power by the EH of user K in the AS approach be achieved in practical implementations [14]. A special case
is given by [14] of PS-type receiver named uniform PS (all antennas have the

 same power splitting ratio) is compared with different vari-
Pk = ηk Tr Q̄k Hk PT HH
k Q̄k , ∀k,
H
(16) ations of the TS schemes. It proves better than fixed power
constraint TS receiver, but performs worse than the TS scheme
where Q̄k ∈ RM×M is the complementary matrix of Qk , i.e., with flexible power constraint. However, no theoretical study
the diagonal entry j, j ∈ {1, 2, . . . M} in the matrix Q̄k is 1 yet compares the best TS scheme (under flexible power con-
if the j-th

diagonal2 entry in the matrix Qk is 0 and vice versa. straint) and the general arbitrary PS scheme (random values
PT = K k=1 | wk | is the transmit power. of PS ratios). Furthermore, AS scheme is proved to have
the smallest rate-energy region and hence with the poorest
D. Separated Receivers performance [14].
In separated receivers scenario, the user is either energy In [41], comparisons between PS scheme and different
harvester or information decoder. Thus, two subsets of users deviations of TS schemes like time-division mode switching
are found, subset of ID user KI , and EH users subset Kε . The (TDMS), time-division multiple access (TDMA) are per-
transmitted signal can be expressed as formed. The comparisons are carried out with respect to
  maximum throughput in MISO interference EH communica-
x= wi si + vj ej , (17) tion system. The results illustrate that PS performs best when
i∈KI j∈Kε the interference is well controlled in the system by the extra
degrees of freedom (the base station’s number of antennas are
where si ∼ CN (0, 1) and ej ∼ CN (0, 1) denote the larger than the number of users), otherwise TS and its devia-
information-bearing signal intended to the i-th ID user and tion schemes provide better performance than that of the PS
the energy-carrying signal targeted for the j-th EH user respec- scheme. Furthermore, it is shown that there is no dominant
tively, wi and vj represent the beamforming vector for the i-th scheme for all considerations and setups, i.e., each channel
ID user and the j-th EH user respectively. type has its own optimal receiver design. For example, it is
If a user k ∈ KI , i.e., an ID user, then the received signal shown that TS is dominant in interference channel, while PS
is expressed as is ideal in interference controlled scenarios.
 
k =
yID k wi si +
hH k vj ej + nk , ∀k ∈ KI .
hH (18)
i∈KI j∈Kε F. Beamforming Design Objectives
Accordingly, the SINR for ID at the user k is expressed as Beamforming transmit vector w can be optimized in order
to achieve several

design goals such as minimizing total trans-
k wk |
| hH 2 mit power ( K k=1 | wk | ) under different constraints like the
2
SINRk =

, ∀k ∈ KI ,
| ID QoS constraint (SINRk > thID k , ∀k), or and the minimum
k wi |
hH + j∈Kε | hH
k vj | +σk
2 2 2
i =k,i∈KI
(19) harvested power constraint (Pk > thEHk , ∀k). This optimization
problem can be formulated as
and the throughput of user k is given by

k
Rk = log2 (1 + SINRk ), ∀k ∈ KI . (20) minimizewk PT = |wk |2
k=1
If user k ∈ Kε , i.e., energy harvester, then the received signal subject to SINRk > thID
k , ∀k,
at EH user is given by
Pk > thk , ∀k
EH
(23)
k = hk x + nk , ∀k ∈ Kε ,
yEH H
(21)
The aforementioned optimization problem has been tack-
and the harvested power is expressed as led by several approaches in different network topologies
⎛ ⎞ such as broadcast channel (Section III-A) and relay channel
  (Section IV-B).
Pm = ηk ⎝ | hH
k wi | +
2
| hH 2⎠
k vj | +σk , ∀k ∈ Kε .
2
The weights of the beamformer are optimized in other
liter-
i∈KI j∈Kε ature to maximize the sum rate of the system RT = K k=1 Rk
(22) subject to different constraints like total transmit power and
ALSABA et al.: BEAMFORMING IN WIRELESS EH COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS: SURVEY
K
k=1 | wk | < Pmax and harvested power con-
minimum 2 than energy threshold needed to initiate the EH process. This
straints. Hence, the optimization problem is expressed as

K
maximizewk RT = Rk
k=1

K
subject to | wk |2 < Pmax ,
k=1
Pk > thEH
k , ∀k (24)
The total sum rate maximization problem is solved by a variety
of techniques and algorithms in the different networks types
(Sections III-C, IV-A, and V-A).
Furthermore, beamforming optimization for guaranteeing
information security in wireless communication systems has
gained a lot of attention in the literature. In the secrecy sce-
nario, the most common beamforming design objective is
maximizing the secrecy rate in the system in the presence
of eavesdroppers. This design objective has been tackled by
a considerable amount of work in the different channel types:
broadcast (Section III-D), relay (Section IV-E) and cognitive
radio (Section V-D). Maximizing secrecy rate is carried out
with guaranteeing different constraints such as the total trans-
mit power constraint and the minimum harvested power. This
optimization problem can be formulated as
maximizewk Rk − Re

K
subject to | wk |2 < Pmax ,
k=1
Pk > thEH
k , ∀k (25)
where Re is the rate of the eavesdropper.
Some approaches optimize jointly the beamforming vector
w and the PS ratio ρ or the TS factor α in what referred
to JBPS or JBTS respectively to achieve the desired design
objective.
III. B EAMFORMING IN E NERGY H ARVESTING
B ROADCAST C HANNEL
Using beamforming in EH-enabled Broadcast Channel (BC)
has been widely investigated, as this channel model is the
most common model, and interference, multipath, and large
distances in such channels necessitate multi-antenna tech-
nique deployment, to improve information and energy transfer
efficiency. Work on Beamforming in EH-enabled broadcast
channel can be mainly divided according to the beamforming
design objectives.
A. Beamforming Design for Total Transmit Power
Minimization
A lot of literature investigates solving the non-convex
problem of designing the beamforming vector in order to
minimize the total transmit power in a MISO SWIPT BC,
under two constraints. firstly the SINR should be greater than
a certain threshold so the information receiver will be able
to decode the information message. The second constraint
implies the energy received at the energy receiver being greater
1335
goal is achieved in [20], by first using fixed beamforming
schemes like, normal or regularized zero forcing, and max-
imum ratio transmission. In zero forcing case, a closed-form
always feasible solution has been derived, while for the maxi-
mum ratio transmission and regularized zero forcing schemes,
the problem is transformed into a SOCP formulation, that
leads to an optimal solution. In addition, a hybrid beamform-
ing scheme is introduced (maximum ratio transmission-zero
forcing), and proved to be superior to all other fixed weights
beamforming schemes. In addition, in order to find the optimal
beamforming scheme, approximate SDP formulation, that pro-
vides optimal solutions for two and three users cases has been
derived.
The same problem is solved in [42], by joint design of
beamforming vector weights and the receiver’s power splitting
ratio (JBPS). After deriving the sufficient and the neces-
sary conditions in order to have a feasible solution, the
SDR technique is applied to achieve the optimal solution.
Furthermore, based on beamforming and PS ratio separa-
tion technique, two suboptimal, but with low computational
complexity are proposed. The suboptimal algorithms start by
fixing the beamforming schemes (zero forcing and optimal
SINR respectively), then searching for the optimal PS ratio.
Comparisons between the optimal algorithm and the two sub-
optimal algorithms, showed that the performance gap between
them increases as the transmission power increases. JBPS
is also used in [43] to solve the total power minimization
problem by providing a relaxation algorithm with its sufficient
optimality condition. This is in addition to a low-complexity
suboptimal algorithm that can be applied in the case when
the optimality condition is not satisfied. Unlike [42]–[44]
considers using SOCP technique instead of the conventional
SDR in order to tackle the JBPS problem. The new proposed
SOCP-based relaxation solves the JBPS problem by decom-
posing it into a master problem (solved via sub-gradient
method), and a set of sub-problems (solved by using coordi-
nate descent method). Comparisons between the new proposed
SOCP-based method and the SDR technique show that feasible
solution to the joint optimization problem is always guaran-
teed in the SOCP-based method, with lower complexity, and
very close performance to the minimum transmit power.
Previous work considers perfect CSI at the base sta-
tion when designing the beamforming vector, which is very
difficult to realize in practice. SCI uncertainty makes the
JBPS optimization problem a homogeneous quadratically con-
strained quadratic problem, which is difficult to be solved.
Beamforming design under both perfect and imperfect deter-
ministic CSI scenarios at the base station is being addressed
in [45]. Tight robust and non-robust SDR-based solutions in
perfect and imperfect CSI scenarios respectively, are obtained,
by solving the optimization problem. The uncertainties of
CSI are considered deterministic and modelled by Euclidean
ball-shaped uncertainty set in [46] and [47]. In [46], two
robust solutions based on loose approximation (SDR-based
technique) and tight approximation (Lagrangian multiplier
method) have been proposed respectively. While a robust solu-
tion using a penalty function algorithm is provided by [47],
1336 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 20, NO. 2, SECOND QUARTER 2018
based on reverse convex non-smooth optimization. The com-
parison between SDR based and penalty function based tech-
niques yields that the later achieves a more reliable and better
solution.
In [48] and [49], the CSI uncertainties are modelled by
a deterministic norm-bounded uncertainty CSI model. The
optimal algorithm that solves the JBPS problem provided
in [48] is achieved via a two-step technique. First, by fixing
the PS ratio, the problem is transformed into an SDR-
based problem that can be solved by standard interior point
algorithms. Second, the optimal PS ratio is found by one/multi-
dimensional search over the minimum target of the transmit
power. While in [49], the original problem is first relaxed using
the SDR technique, then the interior point algorithm is applied
to obtain the optimal solution. The CSI uncertainty is mod-
elled by stochastic Gaussian channel uncertainties in [50]. In
order to tackle this non-convex problem, the authors exploit the
Bernstein-type inequality and Gaussian error function to trans-
fer the optimization problem for Gaussian statistical channel
uncertainties into deterministic one. Moreover, a more general
case of channel uncertainties, i.e., channel uncertainties based
on random distribution is investigated, and a robust solution is
proposed, by exploiting the conditional value at risk functional
and the SDR technique.
JBPS problem in a MIMO SWIPT EH-enabled BC is first
considered in [51] under both perfect and imperfect CSI mod-
els. The total transmit power is minimized by an SDR-based
tight algorithm in the perfect CSI case, and a worst-case
design-based robust algorithm in the erroneous CSI case. The
model in [51] is extended to a massive MIMO channel in [52]
under both perfect and imperfect (stochastic with Gaussian dis-
tribution) CSI models. The optimization problem in this model
is solved by using the asymptotic orthogonality of the channel
vectors technique. The new solution proved to be with less
computational complexity than the conventional SDR-based
solution, and independent of the number of transmit antennas.
A more realistic constraint in the total transmit power
minimization problem with separate-type receiver is consid-
ered in [53], where the sum power constraint is replaced
with a per-receiver power constraints, as each receiver has its
own antenna and amplifying block. Under this new individual
power constraints, two optimization problems are investigated.
Firstly, minimum power transfer for the downlink channels
with a single antenna at each receiver (MISO). Secondly,
capacity-achieving transmitter design for downlink channels
with multiple antennas at each receiver (MIMO). Using the
downlink-uplink duality, the above problems can be trans-
ferred into an equivalent minimax optimization problem. The
downlink-uplink duality is very significant as many difficult
downlink optimization problems can be transferred into a
simple uplink dual problem which can be solved in more
effective ways. The same problem is investigated in [54], by
taking advantage of the constructive interference and exploit-
ing the data-aided beamforming technique. After deriving the
necessary and sufficient feasibility conditions for the design
problem, upper bounds to the optimal solution are obtained via
SOCP and SDP techniques. In addition, based on exponential
complexity mixed-integer SOCP, tight upper and lower bounds
are provided. Furthermore, a practical two iterative algorithms
that provide local optimal solutions and a feasible pre-coding
vector for the optimal solution have also been provided. The
previous work is extended to different imperfect CSI models
in [55]. In ellipsoidal-bounded error CSI case, the constraints
are transformed into quadratic matrix inequality forms, that
can be relaxed as an SDR problem. For local CSI and limited
information exchange cases, a decentralized optimal algorithm
has been proposed based on the alternating direction method
of multipliers.
Choi and Kim [56] propose a model for deploying beam-
forming in WPCN BC, where each receiver has a data queue
and an energy queue. The problem of minimizing the total
transmit power subject to stabilized data queue at each node
is solved by an online Lyapunov optimization-based algorithm.
This online algorithm steers the beamforming vector toward
the receivers with low power queue, and schedules large data
queues receivers for data transmission. The proposed algo-
rithm is proved optimal in both random and deterministic
channel scenarios.
B. Beamforming Design for Energy Efficiency Maximization
Another important design objective for beamforming in BC
is maximizing the system energy efficiency in bits per Joule,
or energy-rate trade-off to control the data and energy flow in
the system. Subject to both SINR and EH constraints with PS-
type receivers, Shi et al. [57] deploy zero-forcing beamforming
scheme to solve the non-convex energy efficiency problem
by means of Lagrangian relaxation and Dinkelbach methods.
The solution provided by the proposed algorithm is closed-
form, and proved always feasible under some conditions. The
proposed algorithm can be implemented under zero-forcing
beamforming scheme only, hence, other techniques should be
addressed to handle the power efficiency problem in more
general scenarios. JBPS is suggested by [58] to solve the
energy efficiency maximization problem locally. Subject to
both maximum total transmit power and EH constraints, the
non-convex optimizing problem solved by an iterative-based
algorithm that guarantees the achievability of a local stationary
solution. Comparisons with other suboptimal known solutions
such as equal PS, and zero-forcing equal PS, demonstrate that
the proposed algorithm has superior performance in terms of
convergence behaviour and the number of transmit antennas.
In [59] the problem of information and energy harvest-
ing transmission efficiency for information and energy users
respectively is investigated. The problem is solved for two
fixed beamforming schemes (zero forcing and maximum
beamforming), by proposing an iterative power allocation
algorithm to achieve optimal power strategy under both beam-
formers. Comparisons between the two different beamforming
schemes reveal that maximum beamforming can provide bet-
ter information and energy transfer efficiency. Chen et al. [60]
generalize the model of [59] to long distance energy and
information transfer in large-scale MIMO EH-enabled BC.
The problem of maximizing the energy efficiency of infor-
mation transmission, subject to delay constraints, is solved by
ALSABA et al.: BEAMFORMING IN WIRELESS EH COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS: SURVEY
jointly optimizing the transmit power and the transfer duration
yielding an efficient energy resource allocation strategy.
The achievable rate-energy regions for TS and PS schemes
in MIMO channel are presented in [14] for the co-located
receiver case, where the ID and EH receivers have an iden-
tical MIMO channel. For the case where the ID and the
EH are separated, i.e., have different MIMO channels, the
optimal beamforming scheme that achieves different maximal
rate-energy transmission trade-offs is presented, and hence,
the rate-energy region is defined for this case. While the
performance of the energy transmitter in WPCN is enhanced
in [61], via sending the CSI at the receiver using a quantiza-
tion codebook. Furthermore, a lower bound of the average
information rate is derived for a given codebook size. By
exploiting the relationship between the EH time, the trans-
mission time ratio, the feedback size, and transmission power,
the optimal energy and information transfer trade-off has been
achieved. Furthermore, the authors provide the optimal rate-
energy trade-off scheme for both perfect and imperfect CSI
cases.
The receiver’s ability of cancelling interference signals in
MISO SWIPT EH-enabled BC is proposed in [62] and [63],
where there are two types of ID receivers, able or unable of
cancelling the interference signals coming from the energy
signals. In [62], the beamforming scheme of joint informa-
tion and energy transmit is designed, in order to maximize
the weighted sum power delivered to all EH receivers sub-
ject to a given minimum SINR constraints at both types ID
receivers. The optimization problem is a non-convex quadrat-
ically constrained quadratic program (QCQP), that can be
solved optimally via SDP and uplink-downlink duality. The
solution shows that for the receiver without interference can-
celling capability, the optimal scheme is achieved without
dedicated energy beam, while for the second receiver type
case, employing only one energy beam is optimal. The objec-
tive in [63] is to minimize the average total transmit power
under EH constraints and SNR and SINR constraints for
ID receivers with and without cancelling interference ability
respectively under worst-case CSI model. For ID receivers
without cancelling capability, upper and lower bounds are
provided by a robust Lagrangian multiplier method-based
algorithms, while an optimal robust SDR-based algorithm is
introduced in the Id receivers with cancelling interference
capability case.
The maximization of the worst-case harvested energy or
SINR ratio for EH receivers or ID receivers respectively, is
another optimization goal that has been taken into consid-
eration to guarantee that all EH receivers and ID receivers
are able of doing EH and ID processes to increase the
system fairness. Subject to the minimum rate constraints
for all ID receivers, and under imperfect CSI assumption,
Xiang and Tao [64] investigate the problem of maximiz-
ing the worst-case harvested energy, which is a semi-infinite
non-convex quadratically constrained programming (QCQP)
problem. As the non-convex QCQP problem is NP-hard, it
is reformulated into a relaxed SDR problem by the means
of certain transformation techniques. Moreover, it has been
proven that this relaxation method is tight and always yields
1337
a global solution of the original problem. Similar to [64], the
objective in [65] is maximizing the worst energy receiver har-
vested power, but subject to both minimum SINR constraints
at the ID receivers and the total transmit power constraints.
Again, the original optimization problem is reformulated as
SDP problem, which is solved optimally via standard inte-
rior point methods. Furthermore, based on bisection method,
an iterative algorithm that provides near upper bound robust
beamforming has been also provided.
Feng et al. [66] address the distributed beamforming scheme
in MISO SWIPT EH-enabled BC. The problem of maximizing
the harvested energy subject to the individual power con-
straints at each transmitter, and the SINR constraints at ID
receivers, in the corresponding system is solved by means of
iterative singular value decomposition method.
C. Beamforming Design for Throughput Maximization
The capacity region of a MISO SWIPT EH-enabled BC
is studied in [67], by finding a solution to the problem of
maximizing the weighted sum rate under both total transmit
power constraints and the EH constraints at all EH receivers.
In order to tackle this problem, a new optimal iterative algo-
rithm is proposed by extending the general BC multiple access
channel duality with the help of the ellipsoid method. The
capacity region provided by the proposed algorithms repre-
sents a performance upper bound to all possible beamforming
and coding schemes that can be applied in MISO SWIPT EH-
enabled BC. The problem of capacity maximization subject to
EH constraints in MIMO channel under imperfect CSI model
is discussed in [68]. The beamforming covariance matrix is
optimized at transmitter nodes with respect to both minimum
mean-square-error and mutual information metrics to achieve
the optimal performance.
Huang et al. [69] calculate the average throughput and
provide it in closed-form expressions in high SNR regimes,
in both delay-limited and delay-tolerant transmission cases.
Furthermore, closed-form expressions for throughput-optimal
EH time at high SNR regimes have also been provided. The
analysis demonstrates that the transmit power and the anten-
nas number are the main parameters in the system, and that
the throughput is in proportional relation to them, while the
value of the optimal energy harvesting time is inversely pro-
portional to them. The work in [69] is extended to TS-type
receiver under Nakagami-m fading in [70], and the average
throughput is derived in analytic expressions for both modes
(delay tolerant and delay intolerant). Additionally a very
accurate closed-form solution of the optimal time switching
technique, which maximizes the average throughput has been
also proposed. The study that is also conducted for co-channel
interference impact on the average throughput shows that
this impact (either positive or negative) is highly dependent
on the system and propagation parameters like, transmit and
interference power, path loss, fading, and network geometry.
In [71], convex restriction approaches are used in order
to solve the problem of maximizing the outage constrained
rate subject to minimum average energy transfer to the
EH receivers constraints under imperfect CSI assumption.
1338 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 20, NO. 2, SECOND QUARTER 2018
Furthermore, the authors exploit the temporal degrees of free-
dom of the stochastic beamforming approach, that give the
beamforming the freedom to vary randomly in time follow-
ing a certain disruption for maximizing the outage-constrained
rate. Comparisons demonstrate that the stochastic beamform-
ing approach has a better rate-energy region than those of other
conventional schemes.
In MISO WPCN BC a TS-type receiver is adopted, where
an access point transmits energy signals in the downlink to
multiple nodes in the first time slot, and in the second time
slot the nodes are sending information back to the access point
in the uplink. Time switching parameter is the most crucial fac-
tor to be tuned in order to optimize the system performance,
in addition, similarly to JBPS, TS period can be jointly opti-
mized with the beamforming vector (JBTS) to achieve certain
system design goals. Liu et al. [72] investigated maximizing
the minimum throughput for all the users by optimizing the
time allocation scheme in both downlink and uplink. This non-
convex optimization problem is solved optimally via two step
algorithm. First, the downlink/uplink time allocation is fixed,
and by using the techniques of alternating optimization and
the non-negative matrix theory the optimal transmit energy
beamforming scheme, downlink power allocation, and receive
beamforming scheme that maximize the minimum SINR of
all users are obtained (this problem is non-convex but can
be converted to a spectral radius minimization problem).
Then, the optimum global solution is found by perform-
ing one-dimensional search over the optimal downlink/uplink
time allocation factors. The high complexity of the optimal
proposed linear MMSE-based algorithm incites the authors to
propose two other less complex suboptimal algorithms based
on zero-forcing beamforming scheme. Sun et al. [73] gener-
alise the previous work by considering perfect and imperfect
CSI scenarios at the energy transmitter, by solving the problem
of maximizing the system sum-throughput in this system. In
the case of perfect CSI, a time complexity reducing algorithm
that yields a semi-closed form solution has been proposed, by
exploiting the strict concavity of the JBTS problem. In the case
of stochastic Gaussian CSI errors, the problem of maximiz-
ing the system throughput under both SNR outage probability
constraints, has been solved by transferring the non-convex
problem into a convex one using Bernstein-type probability
inequality. The resulting convex problem can be efficiently
solved by the interior point method.
Max-min SINR subject to both total transmit power and
EH constraints in a dense small cell with PS-type receivers
problem is investigated in [74] and [75]. The optimization
problem in this scenario turns to be highly non-convex and
even conventional approaches like SDR-based algorithms will
not be able to solve it. In [74], the concept of spectral
optimization in order to change the rank-one constraints into
a single reverse convex non-smooth constraint is used, and
an iterative SDR-based algorithm that leads to optimal solu-
tion have been provided. While in [75], an iterative quadratic
programming-based algorithm that solves the beamforming
vectors directly is provided. The problem of maximizing the
average SINR subject to the individual EH constraint under
imperfect CSI assumption is addressed in [76]. The JBPS
problem is solved by finding the optimal beamforming scheme
first using the SDR technique, then via one/multi-dimensional
search algorithms, the optimum PS factor design is found.
Realizing SWIPT in OFDMA EH-enabled broadband com-
munication system is addressed in [77]. The problem of
maximizing the system throughput subject to the receiver and
transmitter power constraints is solved by proposing power
control strategies. Different scenarios have been considered:
single and multi-user systems, uplink/downlink information
transfer, and fixed and variable data rate. For fixed information
rate, the optimal power control gives the receivers the needed
power for decoding information in ascending order until the
entire amount of power is over. While in the variable infor-
mation rate, the power control policy is a water filling-based
algorithm.
Wu et al. [78] propose a new scheme to solve the
optimization problems in SWIPT MISO BC called rank-
2 transmit beamformed Alamouti space-time code scheme.
Instead of SDR-based technique which can be considered as
1-rank, the new scheme combines transmit beamforming and
space-time coding techniques, leading to rank-2 SDR, which is
dealt with by using rank-2 SDR technique, followed by a rank
reduction procedure. The analysis of the worst-case approxi-
mation accuracy revealed that the accuracy degrades with the
rate of root square of the number of users served, which is
a considerable improvement over the rank-1 approximation
where the accuracy degrades with the rate of the number of
the users.
Table III represents a summary of literature regarding
exploiting beamforming in EH-enabled broadcasting channels.
D. Beamforming Design for Implementing Physical Layer
Security
The open nature of wireless communications necessitates
taking measurements in order to guarantee information secu-
rity, such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) tech-
nique, frequency hopping, and data encryption. But fully
secure communications can be only achieved by exploiting
physical layer security [21], [79]. Physical layer security is a
paradigm where secrecy is achieved by exploiting the physical
layer signal format and physical characteristics of the commu-
nication system, such as noise, fading, and the interference,
where signal processing techniques like beamforming are
deployed for turning the communication channel’s imperfec-
tions into a source of secrecy. Physical layer security is realised
in [79] by using the idea of symmetric key encryption systems,
and it is proved that perfect secrecy can be achieved if the
entropy of the encryption key (a measure of random variable
uncertainty) is as large as that of the confidential message.
Wyner introduced the concept of wiretap channel in which
the communication channel is secured without the usage of
restoring secret keys.
Physical layer security in EH-enabled wireless
network [80], [81] has drawn further attention, as increasing
the signal level to fulfil the EH receivers needs of power,
results in more unintended receiver to get the transmission
and apply decoding on it. In addition, the EH receiver
ALSABA et al.: BEAMFORMING IN WIRELESS EH COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS: SURVEY 1339

TABLE III
B EAMFORMING IN EH-E NABLED B ROADCAST C HANNELS

14

itself can be able of decoding information and thus could confidential messages, or merging the original signal with
be a potential eavesdropper. Many techniques have been AN signal known a priori at the intended receiver in order
considered to guarantee a secure communication such as to maximize the secrecy rate, which can be defined as the
1340 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 20, NO. 2, SECOND QUARTER 2018
difference between the legitimate receivers’ information
rate and that of the eavesdroppers. In this subsection we
summarize research that addresses deploying beamforming to
guarantee the information secrecy in EH-enabled BC.
Maximizing the secrecy rate of the ID receiver problem
under the EH constraints at each EH receiver in MISO BC
is solved in [82] by a two-step procedure. The first step is
fixing the target SINR ratio for the EH and ID receivers
respectively, and deriving the optimal beamforming scheme
and the power allocation solution respectively by means of
SDR techniques, with no loss of optimality. In the second step,
one-dimensional search over the optimal SINR target is per-
formed for all EH receivers and the ID receiver. AN technique
is used in [83] to solve the same problem subject to both maxi-
mum total transmit power and minimum EH constraints. Under
both CSI uncertainties deterministic and statistical assump-
tions, a robust algorithm that jointly designs the beamforming
scheme and the AN covariance matrix is provided. The optimi-
sation problem is divided into a series of SDR-based problems
referred to as inner loop. Using the one-dimensional search,
the optimal solution of the outer loop is provided in the non-
bounded CSI uncertainty scenario. In the statistical channel
uncertainty model, a suboptimal robust algorithm is proposed
using Bernstein-type inequality. The same problem proposed
in [83] is solved in [84] via a two level optimization-based
algorithm which leads to rank-one solution in the perfect CSI
case, while the successive convex approximation is used to
provide a robust scheme in the imperfect CSI case.
Shi et al. [85] consider beamforming design for guaran-
teeing physical layer security a MIMO BC, where different
data streams scenarios are recognised. For single-stream and
specific full-stream data cases, global optimal solutions based
on SDR technique are suggested. In the general case, inex-
act block coordinate descent-base algorithm that provides an
optimal solution to arbitrary number of streams is proposed.
In addition, the authors extended the inexact block coordi-
nate descent algorithm to the multiple energy receivers’ case
by linearising the EH constraints for all the EH receivers
with respect to beamforming scheme. The optimal solution
is obtained, using any efficient interior-point algorithms. A
beamforming design for enhancing information security in a
multi-cell EH BC is considered in [86]. Where the infor-
mation security of the far users is threatened by an already
existed eavesdropper or by any near user. JBPS is adopted to
maximize the minimum secrecy rate under EH constrains. The
non-convex optimization problem is tackled by novel iterative
path-following algorithms, where in each iteration one simple
convex quadratic program is involved.
Another objective has been taken into consideration by sev-
eral literature which is minimising the total transmit power
while guaranteeing both secrecy rate and harvested energy
above certain threshold which is a non-convex problem. In
order to tackle this problem, the SDR technique is exploited
in [87] to obtain a rank-one beamforming optimal design.
While, the optimal solution is obtained in [88] with the aid of
rank-two beamformed Alamouti coding and SDR technique,
in addition to the sufficient conditions so this solution will
be optimal. Furthermore, when the sufficient conditions are
not satisfied, a suboptimal secure multicast algorithm based
on rank-two Gaussian randomization is proposed. The same
optimization problem is solved in MISO SWIPT video BC
in [89], by replacing the non-convex constraints by determin-
istic ones, which leads to a smaller feasible solution set, then
SDR technique is applied to obtain an upper bound power
allocation solution to the new formulated problem. In addi-
tion to the sufficient conditions so this solution is the global
optimal solution. The previous work is extended in [90],
under different statistical channel uncertainty models. The
non-convex optimization is transferred into deterministic forms
using Bernstein-type inequalities, and a rank-one robust secure
beamforming scheme is obtained. Furthermore, a suboptimal
low-complexity iterative algorithm that uses successive con-
vex approximation method has been also proposed, in order
to transform the main problem into a SOCP problem.
Zhang et al. [91] address the JBPS design for maximiz-
ing the secrecy energy efficiency subject to information delay
sensitivity constraints at the ID receiver and the EH con-
straints at the EH receiver. The JBPS design problem is
solved by first fixing the SINR value, and then using the
SDR technique the optimal solution for the reformulated
problem is obtained. After this the global optimal solu-
tion for the original problem is found by performing a full
search over all possible combinations of joint PS ratios and
beamforming schemes. Furthermore, a suboptimal, but lower
complexity algorithm was also introduced based on the genetic
algorithm.
The problem of total transmit power minimization in secure
EH-enabled BC is tackled in [92], under the following con-
straints: SINR constraints at the legitimate receiver, SINR and
outage probability less than maximum level at the potential
eavesdroppers, the power transferred to the idle legitimate
receivers more than certain value, with imperfect CSI of the
potential eavesdroppers, and no CSI of the passive eavesdrop-
pers at the transmitter. To handle this non-convex optimization
problem, first, the non-convex requirements are replaced with
convex ones, then SDR technique is used to achieve the
optimal global solution of the new problem. A suboptimal,
but low complexity resource allocation algorithm has been
also proposed, to provide secure connections and easy wireless
power transfer. The same design objective is addressed [93],
by jointly optimizing the beamforming scheme, the PS ratios,
and the covariance matrix of the AN. A joint design of trans-
mit and energy beamforming is adopted in [94] to maximize
the harvested energy of the EH receivers while maintaining the
SINR of the ID receiver high enough. The SDR-based joint
design is done under perfect and imperfect CSI assumptions,
and proved tight.
An optimal energy-efficient power allocation scheme for
secure BC is proposed in [95], by solving the problem of
maximizing the secrecy energy efficiency subject to informa-
tion delay sensitivity constraints at the ID receivers and the
EH constraints at the EH receivers. The problem is solved
in [96], by using convex restriction approaches for keeping
the outage probability of both the secrecy rate and the har-
vested energy less than a certain threshold under imperfect CSI
assumptions. It is proved that using the safe approximation
ALSABA et al.: BEAMFORMING IN WIRELESS EH COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS: SURVEY
TABLE IV
B EAMFORMING IN S ECURE EH-E NABLED B ROADCAST C HANNEL
approaches-based beamforming schemes always yield an
obtainable rank-one optimal solution.
Table IV represents a summary of the research concerning
using beamforming in secure EH-enabled broadcast channel.
E. Summary and Insights
In this section, beamforming implementation in EH-enabled
broadcast channel is addressed. The different approaches are
classified according to beamforming design objectives. Subject
to different constraints such as QoS at the ID receiver and min-
imum energy harvested at the energy harvester, total transmit
power minimization objective has been considered in a lot
of literature. This design problem turns to be non-convex in
general, and methods like SDR, SOCP, or successive con-
vex approximations are adopted to tackle this optimization
objective.
Beamforming design for maximizing the energy efficiency
in broadcast channel is another objective that has been inves-
tigated in the literature. Under different constraints, energy
efficiency maximization design approach problem, is solved
by means of Dinkelbach method, iterative algorithms, or by
proposing a power allocation policy.
Throughput maximization in EH-enabled broadcast channel
is also studied in the literature. Subject to minimum transmit
power and minimum harvested energy, this non-convex design
problem is tackled via SDR, singular value decompositions,
Ellipsoid method, or beamforming covariance optimization
techniques.
Exploiting physical layer security in EH-enabled by means
of beamforming has been examined in a considerable pro-
portion of the literature. Beamforming vector weights are
optimized in order to maximize the secrecy rate, to maximize
1341
Fig. 3. Illustration of Beamforming Approaches in Broadcast Channel.
the secrecy harvested energy, or minimize total transmit power
with guaranteeing that the secrecy rate is above its target
threshold. Techniques like successive convex approximations,
Bernstein-type inequalities, rank-two beamformed Alamouti
coding, and path-following algorithms are utilized to tackle
the beamforming security design approach.
In PS, or TS type receivers, the different design approaches
discussed before have been tackled by JBPS or JBTS. Where
the beamforming weights are jointly designed with the PS
ratios or the TS factor in order to optimize the system
performance. This joint optimization problem is usually tack-
led by fixing the PS or TS ratio, and optimizing the beam-
forming weights. Then by means of one-dimensional search,
the optimal value of the PS or TS is found.
It is worth mentioning that in general it is difficult to com-
pare these different beamforming approaches. This difficulty
arises as these approaches are considered for different design
objectives, under different constraints and assumptions, with
several receiver’ types, in several system models. Figure 3
represents the different beamforming design objectives in
broadcast channel.
1342 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 20, NO. 2, SECOND QUARTER 2018
IV. B EAMFORMING IN E NERGY H ARVESTING
R ELAY C HANNEL
Relaying technique is a suitable strategy to be consid-
ered in wireless EH technique, as it overcomes attenuation
and fading problems, and thus improves information and
energy transmission efficiency [97]–[101]. In addition, pow-
ering relay nodes with wireless power encourages these nodes
to relay other nodes’ messages as this cooperation won’t
drain their batteries. Existing literature on EH beamform-
ing relay networks involves different types of cooperative
relaying policies like Amplify-and-Forward (AF), and Decode-
and-Forward (DF) [102], [103], working in Full-Duplex (FD)
and Half-Duplex (HD), in addition to revisiting the best relay
selection criteria in EH-enabled relay networks [104]. Also the
physical layer security in these networks is being investigated
from an informational theory point of view [79], [105], [106].
Work on beamforming EH-enabled relay channel is catego-
rized according to beamforming design objective.
A. Beamforming Design for Throughput Maximization
Optimizing the beamforming vector in order to maximize
the system throughput in EH-enabled relay networks is the
most common optimization objective in the literature that has
been tackled in different relaying scenarios. Gong et al. [107]
consider a system of multiple EH relays helping the com-
munication between the source and its destination node out
in a HD manner under several variations of channel condi-
tions. The overall throughput is maximized by joint design
of the EH allocation strategy and the beamforming scheme,
so the relay node will be able to optimally harvest energy
and transmit information. In addition, an optimal centralized
scheme is proposed by exploiting the monotonicity of the
system structure. Furthermore, a distributed sub-optimal game
theory-based scheme that leads to a near optimal solution has
been also discussed. Optimal relay beamforming vector that
maximizes the achievable rate in a AF MISO EH-enabled relay
channel is investigated in [108]. The non-convex problem is
transferred into a convex form by means of rank-one SDR and
Charnes-Cooper transformation techniques. In addition, a low
computational complexity sub-optimal closed-form solution
has also been proposed.
A new distributed energy beamforming and information
transfer technique for maximizing the achievable sum-rate in
SWIPT multiway AF EH-enabled relay channels with TS-type
receiver is suggested in [109]. In addition, a suboptimal low-
complexity TS-based technique is also provided. The TS ratio
and beamforming vector at the relay node are jointly optimized
to maximize the information rate and the harvested energy in
AF TS-type relay channel in [110]. Numerical comparisons
demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the con-
ventional intuitive benchmark beamforming algorithm, and the
middle source-destination distance is not the optimal position
for the relay node any more in EH-enabled relay channels.
Another distributed energy beamforming scheme is proposed
in [111], in order to maximize the achievable sum-rate in
the two-way EH-enabled relay channel. Furthermore, due to
the high complexity of the proposed scheme, another low-
complexity, but suboptimal PS based algorithm that results in
closed-form solution has been also introduced.
Zhou et al. [112] consider MISO half-duplex PS coopera-
tive EH-enabled relaying system. The problem of throughput
maximization by optimizing PS ratio, battery operation, and
beamforming scheme is investigated. In order to solve this
problem, a layered optimization method that decomposes the
joint PS and battery operation schemes into two layers is
proposed, and thus the original problem is reformulated as
a dynamic programming problem. The proposed method is
first applied in non-casual CSI case, leading to the theoretical
bounds. Then it is extended to the general causal CSI by using
the CSI statistical properties. In order to balance complexity
and performance, a greedy method that jointly optimizes PS
ratios and battery operation schemes in the casual CSI case has
been also presented. High data rate SWIPT AF EH-enabled
relay channels are addressed in [113], by proposing a new
beamforming scheme that can handle many source-destination
nodes simultaneously in addition to the EH receiver. The
proposed scheme provides a noticeable enhancement over the
traditional techniques that deal with one source-destination
only. The optimal corresponding beamformer is obtained by
solving the problem of maximizing information sum rate
subject to the EH constraints. This problem is non-convex
NP-hard problem; thus, it is transferred into a series of con-
vex problems by means of first-order Taylor expansion-based
linear constraints. The new reformulated problem is solved
optimally via an iterative-based algorithm.
The achievable sum rate maximization in a MIMO SWIPT
AF EH-enabled relay system, is solved by exploiting the
full diversity gain in orthogonal space time block code-based
in [114]. The signals received at relay node are aligned via
singular value decomposition method, hence, ratio combin-
ing process takes place at the relay node (which is proved
optimal in terms of full diversity gain). The optimization
problem is first approached by alternating optimization and
line search-based algorithm resulting in local optimal solu-
tion, then a near optimal algorithm that replaces the main
problem with its approximation at a high SNR regime is
proposed. Mohammadi et al. [115] maximize the instanta-
neous throughput by means of JBTS in MIMO full-duplex
DF EH-enabled TS-type relay network. An optimal rank-one
SDR-based algorithm in addition to many less-complex sub-
optimal algorithms have been proposed. In some sub-optimal
scenarios (like zero forcing, maximum ratio combining, and
maximum ratio transmission beamforming) a closed-form
expression of the outage probability is provided to character-
ize the delay-constrained throughput. Sum-rate enhancement
in multi-user MIMO DF relay broadcasting channel with EH
relays is studied in [116]. The NP-hard problem is simplified
using a block diagonalization-based method in order to can-
cel the interference signals. This is in addition to proposing
a TDMA-based solution that splits the time for information
transmission between source to the relays and from the relays
to the destinations.
The investigations in [117] focus on SWIPT non-
regenerative two-way EH-enabled relay channel. In order
ALSABA et al.: BEAMFORMING IN WIRELESS EH COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS: SURVEY
to solve the non-convex problem of sum-rate maximization
subject to both transmit power constraints at the relay
and the EH constraints at the EH receiver constraints, a
global optimal iterative SDR-based algorithm is proposed.
The proposed optimal algorithm leads to a global optimal
solution, but with high computational complexity. Thus a
constrained concave convex procedure-based iterative local
algorithm that leads to local optimal solution has also been
provided. In addition a low-complexity sub-optimal general-
ized eigenvectors method-based algorithm has been presented.
Furthermore, iterative alternating optimization-based algo-
rithms have been introduced for multi-antenna sources
case.
In [118], a relay channel, consisting of two EH sources com-
municating via multiple relay nodes is studied. The objective
is to maximize the sum-rate in this network subject to trans-
mit power and EH constraints, under the assumption that the
sources are able to decode information and harvest energy
simultaneously. This non-convex problem is solved via local
optimal SDR and iterative successive convex approximation-
based algorithm. Due to hardware limitations, the ability to
decode information and harvest energy at the same time is
not practical, and thus an alternative scheme, where the node
is either decoding information or harvesting energy has been
proposed by extending the iterative algorithm to this more
practical case. The work in [118] is extended in [119] to the
imperfect CSI scenario, and a robust beamforming scheme
that maximizes the weighted sum rate has been proposed. In
the imperfect CSI case the optimization problem is more dif-
ficult and solved by a two-phase algorithm, first the SINR
ratio is fixed, then based on SDR, S-procedure, and succes-
sive convex approximation techniques an iterative algorithm is
presented.
A new self-energy recycling relaying strategy in the AF
SWIPT EH-enabled relay channel is suggested in [120], where
the relay nodes harvest the self-interference signal resulting
from the DF mode to transmit information. The problem of
maximizing the achievable data rate under the available trans-
mitted power constraints at the relay nodes in this network, is
solved by an SDR-based technique. Furthermore, the same
optimization problems in TS and PS relaying systems are
solved using SDR and full dimensional search. Comparisons
illustrate that the new proposed relaying scheme can achieve
higher data rate compared to the conventional TS and PS
techniques. Zeng and Zhang [121] revisit the self-energy
relay technique in two phase DF EH-enabled relay system.
Here the source is sending information to the relay node in
the first time slot, while in the second time slot it sends
energy to the relay node while the relay is resending the
information to the destination node. This new two-phase
strategy has significant throughput gains in SWIPT full-
duplex EH-enabled relay channel. The new proposed scheme
has been proved better than other schemes as it does not
involve either TS or PS techniques and thus no information
transmission interruption. Furthermore, in MISO case (multi-
antenna relay node), the optimal power allocation strategy
and beamforming transmission scheme at the relay node are
obtained.
1343
B. Beamforming Design for Total Transmit Power
Minimization
The problem of total transmit power minimization
in SWIPT EH-enabled relay channel, is tackled
by [122] and [123]. In [122], a PS-type multi-antenna
EH relay is helping the communication out between the
source and the destination node. The total transmit power
is minimized by joint design of the beamforming matrix (at
the source and the relay) and the PS ratios, using a rank-one
SDR-based algorithm. While in [123], a multi-antenna AF
relay helps a multi-antenna base station to communicate with
single antenna PS-type receivers. The problem of total trans-
mit power minimization under both SINR and EH constraints,
is first solved via alternating optimization-based algorithm,
that optimizes the transceiver coefficients in an iterative
manner. Then the previous algorithm is extended using SDR
and S-procedure techniques to the CSI norm bounded errors
model. In addition, a similar performance but with low over-
head and computational complexity switched relaying-based
algorithm, with its permutation matrix codebook have been
also presented. Furthermore, the design of the permutation
matrix codebook is investigated, and two efficient approaches
based on concave-convex procedure and sub-gradient-type
iterative algorithms have been also proposed for both perfect
and imperfect CSI scenarios respectively.
C. Beamforming Design for Minimum Mean Square Error
Criterion Minimization
The study in [124] focuses on SWIPT MIMO full-duplex
AF system, consisting of a multi-antenna source communicat-
ing with a multi-antenna source via a multi-antenna AF relay
node. The problem of total minimum mean square error crite-
rion, subject to total transmit power and the EH constraints, is
solved by joint beamforming scheme design at both source
and relay nodes, using alternating optimization-based algo-
rithm. Furthermore, a low-complexity channel parallelization-
based algorithm has been also proposed. Joint source-relay
beamforming scheme optimization is readdressed in [125],
in order to minimize the total mean square error sub-
ject to total transmit power constraints and EH constraints
at the relay in MIMO PS-type EH-enabled relay channel.
This non-convex optimization problem is reformulated using
Lagrangian dual function and successive convex approxi-
mations, then an iterative-base algorithm that results in a
local optimum solution is proposed. The high complexity
of the proposed algorithms motivates the author to propose
a sub-optimal water filling-based algorithm using singular
value decomposition. In order to tackle the same problem a
new SDR-based technique that uses both iterative algorithm
and optimization theory is proposed in [126]. A general-
ized singular value decomposition-based algorithm is proposed
in [127], that designs the beamforming vector of the source
and the relay jointly. In addition to designing an iterative
algorithm based on successive convex approximations for
further enhancements on the singular value decomposition
method.
1344 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 20, NO. 2, SECOND QUARTER 2018
D. Beamforming Design for User Fairness
In [128] multi-user MISO two way EH-enabled relay system
is considered, where a multi-antenna PS-type relay node is
securing the communication between multiple single-antenna
users. The max-min SINR problem is studied to enhance the
user fairness in the proposed relay system. The JBPS problem
is solved by an optimal Dinkelbach-type SDP-based algorithm.
The proposed algorithm is proved to be fast convergence,
especially in the case where all antennas at the relay are
employing the same PS ratios scheme. Vahidnia et al. [129]
provide the optimal relay beamforming design, that maxi-
mizes the minimum SINR in the system of two multiple
antenna transceivers communicating with each other, via two-
way EH relay nodes. Furthermore, the closed-form solutions in
two different diversity techniques, equal-gain combining and
maximal-ratio combining are also obtained.
E. Beamforming Design for Realizing SWIPT in Relay
Channel
Another critical issue to be considered is how to realize
SWIPT in EH-enabled relay channel. Krikidis et al. [130]
propose a new low-complexity technique in order to realize
SWIPT technique in a MIMO DF EH-enabled relay channel,
consisting of a single antenna source communicating with a
single antenna destination via a multi-antenna relay node. The
new generalized selection combiner-based technique, allocates
the strongest channels for information decoding process, while
the remaining channels are allocated for the EH process (and
vice versa). Furthermore, the number of the strongest channels
and the allocation scheme are optimized in order to minimize
the outage probability, which is derived in close-form expres-
sions for different scenarios. The proposed technique has been
also extended to the multi-user case, with zero-forcing beam-
former at the relay node, so the external interference signals
coming from information signal will be cancelled. The corre-
sponding outage probability closed-form expressions are also
obtained. Another new SWIPT communication system but in
a MIMO AF EH-enabled relay is proposed in [131]. The relay
in the proposed system has the ability of storing the remain-
ing power of the relaying process. The relation between the
rate and the stored energy is thoroughly studied under three
different receiver’s types, ideal, PS, and TS. Furthermore, the
impact of imperfect on the rate-energy region has been also
examined.
A three nodes system consisting of a multi-antenna access
point, a single-antenna relay, and a single-antenna user is
investigated in [132]. In the proposed system, the relay node
harvests power in the downlink to help the user in forwarding
his message in the uplink using the harvested power. In order
to optimize the performance of the system the beamform-
ing vector is jointly designed with time split factor between
harvesting energy and relaying. Optimal and sub-optimal but
lesser computationally complex solutions in addition to closed-
form expressions are proposed. The authors concluded that
exploiting beamforming technique at the access point has sig-
nificant permanence enactments, as is it sufficient to only
apply the sub-optimal beamforming scheme to achieve the near
optimal performance in the proposed relay system. While in
the relaying scheme introduced by Chen et al. [133] both relay
and source nodes can harvest energy. The performance of the
proposed system is thoroughly investigated for both PS and TS
techniques. The new scheme demonstrates a considerable gain
for fixed location assumption, however, the random locations
case has not been considered.
A lower and upper bound to the outage probability of a
two-hop MIMO AF EH-enabled relay channel are introduced
in [134]. In addition, the ergodic capacity, in both transmission
schemes (delay limited and delay tolerant) is provided. The
outage probability of AF EH-enabled TS-type relay channel
is calculated in [135] and provided in closed-form expressions.
The problem of optimal relay placement in multi-hope relay
channel with energy transfer is investigated in [136]. The high
non-convex optimization problem is solved by an alpha-branch
and bound algorithm-based model that efficiently determines
the relay location on a Euclidean x-y plane. In the special
case of two-hop relay system, the optimization problem is
a pseudo-concave problem that can be solved by distributed
beamforming scheme.
Table V represents a summary of literature concerning
exploiting beamforming in EH-enabled relay channel commu-
nications.
F. Beamforming Design for Implementing Physical Layer
Security
In this subsection, we present the literature that addressee
the physical layer security implementation in EH relay chan-
nel, in order to guarantee the information secrecy in this
network.
Physical layer security in a two-hop FD WPCN EH-enabled
relay system is addressed in [137] and [138], where a source
is communicating with a destination node via a wireless pow-
ered multi-antenna relay, with the presence of an eavesdropper.
The beamforming vector at the relay is optimized in order to
maximize the achievable secrecy rate subject to the EH con-
straints at the relay node. Confidential messages technique at
EH relay channel under both AF and DF relaying strategies
is investigated in [137]. In the AF case, an algorithm that
optimizes the beamforming scheme is proposed, while the
beamforming scheme is jointly optimized with TS ratio by
means of majorization minimization programming and rank
relaxation in the DF case. While Li et al. [138] consider
Alamouti-based rank-two beamforming, with AN deployed
at the AF relay. The optimization problem in this scenario
is solved by means of SDR and majorization minimization
techniques.
Physical layer security in EH relay channel is guaranteed
in [139] by joint optimization of beamforming vector at the
source, the PS ratios, and the AF coefficient ratios at the relay
nodes. The non-convex joint problem is solved by dividing it
into three sub-problems, finding the PS ratios, beamforming
vector, and the AF ratios. Then the global problem is solved
efficiently. In order to tackle this objective, Feng et al. [140]
exploit the duality between the original problem and the
secrecy rate constrained power minimization problem, in
ALSABA et al.: BEAMFORMING IN WIRELESS EH COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS: SURVEY 1345

TABLE V
B EAMFORMING IN E NERGY H ARVESTING -E NABLED R ELAY C HANNELS

addition to the SDR and the one-dimensional search, to obtain
an always exists rank-one efficient solution. Furthermore, the
suggested robust algorithm performance is compared with AN-
based algorithms, and it is shown that it has better worst-case
secrecy rate performance.
The JBPS problem for maximizing the secrecy rate in EH
relay channel is tackled in [141], by presenting a local optimal
block-wise penalty function-based algorithm that jointly opti-
mizes the beamforming vector and the PS ratios for all active
relays. In [142] three secure beamforming schemes for solv-
ing this problem are proposed. Firstly a constrained concave
convex procedure-based iterative algorithm that leads to a local
optimum. Secondly a low complexity sub-optimal zero forcing
beamforming-based algorithm. Thirdly a low complexity sub-
optimal SDR and closed-form-based algorithms. Comparisons
among the proposed algorithms reveal that the constrained
concave convex procedure-based algorithm can achieve the
best achievable secrecy rate, with lower computational com-
plexity than that of the SDR-based algorithm, but higher than
the closed-form algorithm.
Gao et al. [143] consider a multi-user MISO EH-enabled
relay network, consisting of a multi-antenna information and
energy source, a multi-antenna self-sustaining relay node,
multiple single-antenna users, in addition to the existence
1346 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 20, NO. 2, SECOND QUARTER 2018
TABLE VI
B EAMFORMING IN S ECURE E NERGY H ARVESTING -E NABLED R ELAY C HANNELS
of multiple eavesdroppers. The objective is to minimize the
source transmit power under SINR threshold constraint at
both users and relay nodes, EH constraint the relay, and the
outage constraints of the eavesdroppers. In order to solve
this non-convex problem, it is first transferred into convex
form by successive convex approximations, then by means
of first-order Taylor expansion, an optimal iterative algo-
rithm is proposed to solve the reformulated problem. The
same design problem is tackled in [144] using AN-aided
beamforming under imperfect CSI scenario. The problem is
effectively solved by S-procedure and SDR techniques for both
PS and TS receiver’s type. Furthermore, it is proved that the
robust secure beamforming design in PS scheme has a bet-
ter performance than that of TS scheme in the corresponding
channel architecture.
A novel secrecy technique is proposed in [145] and [146],
called ‘Harvest and Jam’, to provide secure communications
in EH-enabled relay networks. In this two-phase strategy relay
nodes are used as jammers for impairing the eavesdroppers
channel. In the first phase, the relay nodes split the power
received from the sources into two power streams, one used
to generate AN signals for jamming the eavesdroppers, and the
other energy stream is used to transmit the information in the
second phase. In order to maximize the achievable secrecy rate
under individual power constraints of the relay nodes under
both global and local CSI scenarios, Xing et al. [145] propose
an SDR-based algorithm and a fully distributed robust algo-
rithm for global and local CSI scenarios respectively. In [146]
an SDR-based algorithm that jointly optimizes the AN covari-
ance matrix and the beamforming vector is proposed in the
perfect CSI case, and the technique of worst-case is employed
to maximize the minimum achievable secrecy rate in the
imperfect CSI case. This same problem is solved in [147], by
jointly designing the source signal, the AN, and the relay for-
warding beamforming scheme. This non-convex optimization
problem is first solved by alternatively optimizing beamform-
ing matrices at the source and the relay separately. Then a joint
optimization-based iterative algorithm has been introduced. In
addition a low computational complexity non-iterative algo-
rithm has been discussed. This is solved in [148] by iterative
alternatively optimizing-based algorithm that jointly optimizes
the transmit beamforming weights at the AF relay and the
covariance matrix of the AN signals.
Table VI represents a summary of the literature concerning
exploiting beamforming in secure EH-enabled relay channel
communications.
G. Summary and Insights
Literature that investigates exploiting beamforming in EH-
enabled relay network are discussed in this section. In relay
network architectures beamforming can be implemented at
the source or relay node, or at both nodes to achieve the
desired objective. In addition, in EH-enabled relay networks
it might be the relay or the source node or both nodes
that are capable of performing the EH process. Again the
different beamforming approaches in EH relay channel com-
munications are organized according to beamforming design
objectives under the different relaying mode AF or DF in FD
or HD manner. Beamforming for maximization the through-
put in relay networks is the approach most addressed in
the literature. This optimization problem has been tackled
by different methods such as exploiting the monotonicity of
the relay system, distributed beamforming algorithms, layered
optimization method, SDR and Charnes-Cooper transforma-
tion. Alternating optimization technique is adopted in order to
minimize total transmit power in EH-enabled relay network.
Minimizing the total minimum square error objective and user
fairness are other beamforming design objectives that have
been approached by singular value decomposition-based or
SDR-based techniques respectively.
Several protocols have been suggested for realizing SWIPT
technique in beamforming EH-enabled relay networks. Some
protocols allocate the strongest channels for ID process while
the rest are allocated for EH process in MIMO DF EH-enabled
relay network. Other proposed protocols that depend on the
ALSABA et al.: BEAMFORMING IN WIRELESS EH COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS: SURVEY
Fig. 4. Illustration of Beamforming Approaches in Relay Channel.
relay ability of storing the remaining power to be used in the
relaying process. In addition to introducing a protocol that
allows the relay nodes to harvest energy in the downlink to
help users in the uplink.
In addition, different beamforming approaches have been
considered in order to guarantee the information security in
EH-enabled relay networks. Beamforming is exploited at the
relay node to generate a jamming signal to impair eaves-
droppers channel, or to realize Harvest and Jam technique,
where the relay nodes used the harvested power to jam
the malicious nodes. Methods like majorization-minimization,
S-Procedure, problem dividing or block-wise penalty function-
based algorithm are adopted in order to solve the non-convex
beamforming optimization design of maximizing the secrecy
rate in the relay network. Furthermore, the problem of optimal
relay location in EH-enabled relay networks has been read-
dressed, where the criteria which are adopted in conventional
relay networks are proved to be not valid. The optimal relay
allocation in Euclidean plane is obtained by means of Alpha-
branch and bound algorithms. The different beamforming
design approaches in relay networks are illustrated in Figure 4.
V. B EAMFORMING IN E NERGY H ARVESTING
C OGNITIVE R ADIO N ETWORKS
The excessive demand on the spectrum resource caused
by the ever increasing number of wireless communication
systems and functionalities has become extremely high, mak-
ing the available bandwidth spectrum very limited. Out of this
problem of spectrum scarcity, the idea of Cognitive Radio
Network (CRN) is born. The principle of the CRN is to let
secondary users (also referred to as cognitive users) to coex-
ists in the licensed bands allocated to the primary users (also
known as non-cognitive or licensed users) as long as this
coexistence doesn’t degrade the performance of the primary
system [149], [150]. In other words, there exists a temporary
spectrum void, referred to as white space, defined as “band
of frequencies that are not being used by the primary user
of that band at a particular time in a particular geographic
area” [151]. This white space can be utilized by secondary
users opportunistically. In order to implement the concept of
CR, secondary users should be capable of performing four
basic functions [152]: Spectrum sensing, to detect the avail-
able white spaces to be utilized for their own transmissions.
Spectrum decision, at this stage secondary users decide which
white space to be used depending on the results of spectrum
sensing process. Spectrum sharing, to decide how to share the
available white spaces with other secondary users. Spectrum
1347
mobility, to decide when to free the currently used spectrum
band to be returned to primary system users.
Secondary users can operate in three main paradigms
depending on white space access: interweave, underlay, and
overlay [153]. In interweave paradigm, secondary users are
allowed to use the licences spectrum when it is free by means
of spectrum sensing and mobility techniques [154], [155].
Spectrum utilization efficiency in interweave paradigm is
increased by secondary users’ opportunistic white space reuse.
Interweave paradigm requires secondary users full knowledge
of the primary system activity in order to periodically sense
the radio spectrum, detect white space and then opportunisti-
cally communicates with minimal interference to the primary
active users.
In overlay paradigm, secondary users can transmit with pri-
mary users on the same licensed frequency bands as long as
this concurrent transmission does cause interference with the
primary system. Interference avoidance in overlay paradigm
is carried out by detecting the presence of primary users and
modifying the secondary users transmitted signal accordingly
to avoid interference with primary users. Overlay communica-
tion can be classified into two main approaches, cooperative
and non-cooperative [153]. In the cooperative approach [156],
a sort of inter-system collaboration scheme is established
to avoid secondary users interference to primary receivers.
One way to avoid interference in cooperative approach is by
exploiting the code domain techniques such as spread spec-
trum techniques (frequency hopping or direct sequence), where
primary and secondary users use nearly orthogonal codes to
transmit simultaneously. In non-cooperative approach, sec-
ondary users alone determine the availability of white space
that doesn’t cause any interference when accessed. Overlay
paradigm requires secondary users’ full knowledge of the
primary users’ codebooks and messages [155].
Underlay paradigm allows simultaneous primary and sec-
ondary transmissions as long as the interference level at
the primary system doesn’t exceed a predefined tolera-
ble interference threshold called the “interference tempera-
ture” [157]. Underlay paradigm has drawn a lot of attention,
due to this simultaneous transmission property that yields
higher spectrum efficiency. Underlay paradigm doesn’t involve
any spectrum sensing process [158] or opportunistic exploita-
tion of white space; instead, it only requires knowledge of
the interference caused by the secondary transmission to the
primary receiver. Underlay is the most suitable paradigm for
low-power short range communications such as spread spec-
trum, ultra-wide band communication, cognitive femtocell,
machine-to-machine communications [159].
Interference provoked by secondary system at primary
system is controlled by two major approaches [160]. In the
systems where not all primary and secondary users can be
supported with their SINR threshold (infeasible systems), a
joint power and admission control algorithm is used to protect
all primary users along with maximum number of secondary
users. In the schemes where all secondary users can reach their
target SINR (feasible systems), it is generally desired to assign
the secondary users with the highest possible level of SINR
to maximize the secondary system’s throughput subject to the
1348 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 20, NO. 2, SECOND QUARTER 2018
interference level constraints of the primary system. Normally
these two interference management techniques start by charac-
terising the feasible cognitive interference region, that defines
the allowed levels of interference provoked by the secondary
system at any primary receiver while guaranteeing that all
primary users are protected.
Another important key feature of CRNs is primary system
activity modelling, as the secondary users knowledge of spec-
trum utilization will greatly enhance the system performance
of CRNs [161]. Activity modelling helps secondary users to
predict the status of a spectrum band depending on the past
activity of the primary users, and hence they can choose
the best available white space for their future transmission.
Spectrum activity modelling approaches can be categorized
as follows [162]: Probability density function and cumula-
tive density function: this model characterizes the dynamic
range of the primary system signal values, and the how often
these values occur. Secondary users’ knowledge of the statis-
tical information of the primary systems signals helps them to
choose the transmission time and the allowed transmit power
level. Markov Chain: as the spectrum occupancy changes
between utilized and not-utilized status only, Markov chain
is a natural choice to characterize the transition probability
among possible states. Different variations of this model can
be found such as continues-time Markov chain which is the
most common model, continuous-time semi-Markov chain,
and two-state and three-state Markov chain. Linear regres-
sion model: Markov chain models only characterises the white
space in time dimension, and doesn’t cover frequency and geo-
graphical location dimensions of the white space. Hence, linear
regression model is used to provide a full representation of
the white space occupancy in the three dimensions. Bayesian
model: it is normally used to describe joint conditional prob-
ability distribution among different related random variables.
In CRNs, Bayesian model is used to describe the correlation
in time, space, and frequency of the white space occupancy
activity.
All the models presented above describe the statistical char-
acteristic of the spectrum occupancy in some applications the
actual values of spectrum usage are needed. Furthermore, the
four basic cognitive radio functions (spectrum sensing, spec-
trum decision, spectrum sharing, spectrum mobility) introduce
time delays that reduce the spectrum utilization efficiency.
Thus, spectrum occupancy prediction techniques are very
important for SRNs designs, in order to reduce the delay
of finding the white space, minimize the energy consump-
tion, reduce the interference with primary system signals
and increasing the system throughput [163]. Several spectrum
occupancy prediction techniques have been introduced in the
literature, that can be classified according to their application.
For example, hidden Markov model-based technique is used
for spectrum decision and spectrum mobility functions, while
multilayer prediction neural network-based technique is used
for spectrum sensing process, Bayesian inference and moving
average techniques are adopted to predict spectrum sensing,
spectrum decision and spectrum mobility functions. However,
in order to accurately describe the utilization rate of the spec-
trum, meaningful data about spectrum use in time, frequency
and space are needed, to this end spectrum occupancy mea-
surement is introduced. Spectrum occupancy measurement is
an approach to describe the utilization rate of the channel or
band by measuring the portion times where the spectrum is
occupied, to provide the efficiency of the spectrum alloca-
tion policies. Höyhtyä et al. [164] focus on the importance
of the spatial dimension in spectrum occupancy measure-
ments, by acquisition data at separate locations in different
areas, by exploiting interference maps tool to analyse spectrum
occupancy over a geographic area of interest.
From the above discussion, it’s obvious that CRNs involve a
considerable amount of signal processing, hence extra power is
needed for both signal processing and transmission processes.
Therefore, EH-enabled CRN presents a promising solution for
increasing both energy and frequency efficiency. As in addi-
tion to overcoming the frequency scarceness problem [165],
it prolongs the network lifetime and encourages inter-system
cooperation [166], [167]. Exploiting the SWIPT technique to
transmit information to the primary receivers and energy to the
secondary nodes creates more cooperation incentives between
primary and secondary systems [168] in power-constrained
CRNs, where the cooperation between primary and secondary
system is threatened by the energy shortage in the system.
In addition, a lot of research demonstrates that powering
the secondary system provides higher data rate than that of
the conventional CRNs. EH-enabled CRN considerable atten-
tion of late and substantial amounts of research has been
done in this domain, either by suggesting information and
energy cooperation schemes, cooperative relay selection, or
the physical layer security issue.
A. Beamforming Design for Throughput Maximization
Zhu et al. [169] address rate maximization problem in a
SWIPT EH-enabled CRN, where the secondary user shares
the same transmit spectrum with the ID and EH primary users.
In order to solve this problem, a rank-one SDR technique is
proposed. Furthermore, to reduce the computational complex-
ity, two sub-optimal algorithms that yield an upper and lower
rate bounds have been also presented. Cooperation between
primary and secondary system is motivated in [170] by adopt-
ing a dedicated energy beamforming in an overlay EH-enabled
CRN system. This cooperation carried out via energy access
points in two transmission phases. In the first phase, the
full-duplex energy access points charge the secondary trans-
mitter while receiving the primary transmitter’s signal at
the same time. In the second phase, forward the primary
transmitter’s message. The optimal receiving beamforming
scheme that maximizes the weighted sum-rate maximization
in the proposed system, under the transmit power and the
total cost constraints, is tackled by means of successive con-
vex approximation techniques. Furthermore, a sub-optimal
zero-forcing-based scheme has been also introduced.
Rate maximization in EH-enabled overlay CRN with non-
regenerative two-way relay is addressed in [171] and [172].
In [171], the system is consisting of a multi-antenna sec-
ondary user, that harvests energy from the primary users’
ALSABA et al.: BEAMFORMING IN WIRELESS EH COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS: SURVEY
signals using the PS technique. Subject to minimum achiev-
able rate requirements of the primary users, and maximum
total transmit power at the secondary user transmitter con-
straints, and under both perfect and imperfect CSI at the
secondary user transmitter assumptions, the achievable rate
for the secondary users is maximized for both CSI scenar-
ios. In the perfect CSI case, the JBPS optimization problem
is solved optimally by Charnes-Cooper transformation and
one-dimensional search, and sub-optimally by zero forcing
beamforming-based scheme. In the imperfect CSI case, sub-
optimal zero forcing scheme and SDR-based algorithm are
presented, and the corresponding rank-one solution is pro-
vided by Gaussian randomization method. A Bisection Search
method-based algorithm is proposed in [172], to solve the
problem of rate maximization under the constraint that the
interference in the secondary relaying network is less than a
certain threshold. The proposed sub-optimal algorithm jointly
optimizes the relay selection and the power allocation scheme.
B. Beamforming Design for Realizing SWIPT in CRN
In [173], several cooperative SWIPT schemes in the EH-
enabled overlay CRN are proposed. The principle of the
suggested energy cooperative schemes is to let all the sec-
ondary nodes communicate in the first time slot, whilst the
primary transmitter is harvesting energy from these secondary
signals. Then in the next time slot, the primary transmit-
ter sends its own data to the primary and secondary nodes,
and in the third time slot, the secondary nodes amplify
and forward the received primary data. Depending on sec-
ondary access and powering primary transmitter strategies,
five different cooperative schemes are provided, two of them
used distributed energy beamforming schemes. Furthermore,
for all schemes, the primary and secondary rates are cal-
culated and provided in closed-form formulas. In addition
to the cooperative schemes, a relay-selection strategy that
minimizes the minimum mean square error of the received
primary data at the primary receiver has also been presented.
Comparisons among the different schemes demonstrate that
the distributed beamforming-based schemes provide a higher
achievable primary rate.
The suggested energy cooperative scheme proposed in [174]
is for orthogonal EH-enabled CRN, where in each frequency
channel there is a limited energy EH primary user and a sec-
ondary user. In the proposed scheme, the only secondary user
found in the band is aided by the nearby secondary coopera-
tive beamforming relays with certain probability, where these
relays keep the received secondary data packets in a relaying
queue when the direct link is not available, to transmit when
the secondary user direct link is available. Closed-form expres-
sions for the outage probabilities and the secondary throughput
in this new protocol are derived. In addition, the impact of
the proposed system parameters like the energy and relay-
ing queue capacity, and number of relays are investigated.
Another two-hops strategy to realize the SWIPT scheme is
suggested in [175], where a multi-antenna primary transmit-
ter communicates with its primary receiver via a DF relay,
while in secondary system there are multiple EH transmitters
1349
communicate with a secondary base station. The idea of the
suggested two-hops framework is to power the secondary users
with the excess energy, so it can do the dynamic spectrum
access. In the first phase, the primary transmitter communi-
cates with the relay while powering the secondary users, in
the second phase, the secondary users utilize the energy har-
vested in the previous phase to do dynamic spectrum access
to communicate with its base station, while the relay is com-
municating with the primary receiver. In addition, the outage
probability of the secondary system is derived and provided
in closed-form expressions.
In [176], three joint information and energy cooperation-
based protocols are proposed, employing ideal backhaul,
practical PS and TS schemes. In addition, for each protocol,
the optimal and the sub-optimal zero forcing-based solutions
are derived. Comparisons show that PS scheme provides larger
rate-energy region than that of the TS scheme specially in
high efficiency power transfer regime. Cooperative self-energy
recycling CRN is proposed in [177], where the secondary user
harvests energy from primary signals, and in return it relays
the primary signals in AF mode. The objective is to provide
the optimized beamforming scheme which guarantees that the
secondary user has the sufficient energy level to help the pri-
mary system communication. In order to reach the optimal
solution, an SDR-based algorithm is presented. Furthermore,
the same optimization problem is solved for both TS and PS
protocol using SDR and one-dimensional search, in order to
illustrate the improvement on the achievable rate provided by
the self-energy technique over TS and PS schemes.
C. Beamforming Design for Energy Efficiency Maximization
The focus in [178] is to design a robust transceiver for a
SWIPT MIMO EH-enabled CRN under the worst-case CSI
assumption. The new design maximizes the sum harvested
energy at the EH receivers subject to minimum mean square
error at the secondary ID receiver and the SINR at the pri-
mary receiver’s constraints. The main problem is alternatively
optimized by optimizing the transmit covariance matrix at the
secondary user transmitter, and the pre-processing matrix at
the secondary user ID receivers.
Table VII represents a summary of the literature regarding
exploiting beamforming in energy harvesting cognitive radio
networks.
D. Beamforming Design for Implementing Physical
Layer Security
EH-enabled CRN and CRN system in general entails new
security challenges due to its characteristics and nature of
openness. Most of these challenges arise from the coexistence
of both primary and secondary users in the network and the
mechanisms deployed by CR systems. For instance, the sec-
ondary users should be able to recognize primary users from
malicious ones. Furthermore, the sensing mechanism should
be fully secured so no malicious nodes can attack and threaten
the correctness of the sensing information. However, not much
work has been conducted to derive fundamental and theoretical
secrecy limits for CRN [179].
1350 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 20, NO. 2, SECOND QUARTER 2018
TABLE VII
B EAMFORMING IN E NERGY H ARVESTING -E NABLED C OGNITIVE R ADIO N ETWORKS
Physical layer security in EH-enabled CRN PS-type
receivers is visited in [180], where the primary system is
consisting of a transmitter and a primary receiver, while in
the secondary system, there are a secondary transmitter, a
trusted secondary receiver, and multiple secondary users that
can be considered as potential eavesdroppers. The objective
is to maximize the secondary system rate under both secrecy
QoS requirements of the primary system and secondary trans-
mitter power constraints. This non-convex joint PS ratio and
secure beamforming optimization problem is solved by two
stage techniques. Firstly, fixing the PS ratio, and finding the
optimal secure beamforming scheme. Secondly, performing
one-dimensional search over all possible PS ratios.
Wu and Chen [181] revisit the security problem in EH-
enabled CRN for a different system model. The proposed
system consists of a multi-antenna secondary transmitter com-
municating with a secondary receiver, and helping a primary
transmitter to communicate with a primary receiver. Both
secondary and primary receivers are assumed to decode infor-
mation and harvest energy using the PS technique. By taking
into consideration the existence of potential eavesdroppers and
imperfect CSI at the secondary transmitter, the objective is to
minimize the transmit power subject to minimum information
rate and harvested energy constraints at both receivers. This
is in addition to guaranteeing minimum rate at the poten-
tial eavesdropper. The non-convex joint optimization of the
PS ratio and the secure beamforming scheme problem is
first reformulated using the S-Procedure technique, then the
SDR technique is used to resolve the new relaxed problem
to obtain the optimal joint robust beamforming and PS
scheme.
A resource allocation scheme in secure EH-enabled CRN
is presented in [182], where the primary system is harvest-
ing energy in the idle mode, while the SWIPT secondary
system provides secure communication to all secondary
users. The proposed weighted Tchebycheff approach-based
resource allocation scheme aims to fulfil three objectives:
Maximizing the EH efficiency, maximizing total transmit
power and minimizing interference to transmit power ratio,
subject to secure communication in secondary system con-
straints, CSI imperfection of the idle secondary receivers and
of the primary receiver channels at the secondary transmit-
ter. This multi-objective, non-convex optimization problem,
can be solved optimally using SDR techniques. Furthermore,
for the case when the solution is not available, two sub-
optimal algorithms have been proposed. However, the objec-
tive of maximizing the interference power provoked by the
secondary system to the primary system is not reason-
able, as this interference signals may exceed the tolerable
threshold, causing performance degradation in the primary
system.
The problem of EH fairness in a secure MISO CRN
system with help of AN-aided Beamforming is examined
in [183]. Under imperfect CSI model (bounded and proba-
bilistic), the problem of Max-Min harvested energy is solved
by jointly designing the AN beamforming vector and the PS
values. The non-convex problem is solved optimally by an
s-procedure-based algorithm in the bounded CSI error case,
while a Bernstein type inequalities-based sub-optimal solution
is proposed for the probabilistic case. In addition, a trade-off
is established between the secrecy rate of the secondary user
and the harvested energy of the EH receivers under a max-min
fairness criterion.
Lei et al. [184] investigate the secrecy outage probabil-
ity of underlay MIMO CRN with EH and AS receiver type.
Depending on the SCI availability, two antenna selection
algorithms are proposed. The antenna selection-based scheme
shows a considerable gain when comparing to the conventional
time or space transmission schemes.
Table VIII represents a summary of the literature regarding
exploiting beamforming in secure energy harvesting cognitive
radio networks.
ALSABA et al.: BEAMFORMING IN WIRELESS EH COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS: SURVEY
TABLE VIII
B EAMFORMING IN S ECURE E NERGY H ARVESTING -E NABLED C OGNITIVE R ADIO N ETWORKS
E. Summary and Insights
In this section, we survey the state-of-art on beamforming in
EH-enabled CRNs. In cognitive radio networks, beamforming
can be deployed at the primary or the secondary transmitter
in order to realize different objectives under different spec-
trum sharing paradigms in cooperative and non-cooperative
scenarios (see Figure 5).
Beamforming design for throughput maximization in EH-
CRNs under different system models and constraints, has
drawn a lot of attention in the literature. This NP-hard
optimization problem has been tackled by optimal and sup-
optimal algorithms. Techniques like successive convex approx-
imation, Charnes-Cooper transformation, and Bisection search
method are widely used to solve this problem. Realizing
SWIPT in beamforming EH-enabled CRNs has been inves-
tigated in the literature by proposing new protocols. The
proposed schemes exploit the EH capability to facilitate
primary and secondary systems cooperation. Where the sec-
ondary users harvest energy from primary users signals, in
return the secondary users used the harvested energy or part
of it to relay the primary users signals. While SDR-based algo-
rithm is adopted in order to maximize the energy efficiency in
EH-enabled CRNs.
Implementing physical layer security in EH-enabled CRNs
is another important beamforming approach that has been
examined in the literature. Where beamforming weights are
optimized by means of 1-dimensional search, S-procedure,
Bernstein-type inequalities and SDR methods in order to
maximize the secrecy rate, minimizing total transmit power
and enhancing the secrecy energy efficiency respectively.
Beamforming EH implementation in CRNs is of huge
significance regarding system performance. However, exist-
ing literature doesn’t cover this topic sufficiently, and more
research is needed especially on exploiting multi-antenna EH
in the underlay paradigm, FD cooperative CRN schemes and
simultaneous spectrum sensing and data transmitting at the
secondary system.
VI. C HANNEL S TATE I NFORMATION F EEDBACK
M ECHANISMS , OVERHEAD , AND T RAINING T ECHNIQUES
CSI perfect knowledge at the transmitter necessitates huge
amount of feedback data from all receivers to the transmitter.
Of course, this process involves CSI acquisition mechanisms
1351
Fig. 5. Illustration of Beamforming Approaches in Cognitive Radio
Networks.
and training strategies yielding an overhead. The trade-off
between energy transmitting and training process should be
made carefully, so that the CSI is acquired with sufficient
accuracy without consuming too much energy. In this section,
literature addressing acquisition, training schemes, feedback
mechanisms and overhead-energy trade-off is presented.
Balancing the time resource allocation between channel
estimation and WPT processes in order to maximize the har-
vested energy in MISO EH-enabled communication system,
is addressed in [185]. The allocation of energy resource used
for wireless energy transfer has been also investigated, by
performing dynamic optimization of the preamble feedback
information length. The optimal offline (fixed) preamble length
that reduces the feedback complexity has also been obtained.
Moreover, the optimal power allocation schemes for the WPT
in dynamic-length preamble and fixed-length preamble cases
are derived. The proposed transmit power allocation scheme
assigns power depending on the estimated channel status and
the optimal preamble information length. In [186], the optimal
training strategy is derived by solving the problem of maxi-
mizing the net average energy harvested at the EH receiver,
after taking into consideration the energy consumed for chan-
nel training. The forward link channel is efficiently estimated
at the energy transmitter via a dedicated feedback channel
from the EH receiver to the energy transmitter. A CSI train-
ing technique for maximizing the transferred energy in MISO
frequency-selective EH-enabled system is proposed in [187].
The proposed training technique can be divided into two
stages. In the first stage pilot signals are sent over certain avail-
able frequency sub-bands from the EH receiver to the energy
transmitter. Based on the received power of the pilot signals,
1352 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 20, NO. 2, SECOND QUARTER 2018
the transmitter can decide the strongest frequency sub-bands,
and send their indices back to the EH receiver. In the second
stage, the strongest sub-bands are well estimated via further
training by the energy harvester to design the beamforming
scheme at the transmitter. Moreover, an asymptotic analysis
is also derived for large number of antennas or sub-bands
systems. These results can be extended to several areas like
MIMO channel, correlated channels case, or multi-user cases.
Gangula et al. [188] maximize the throughput rate via opti-
mizing the feedback strategy. It is first assumed that only
the receiver has the EH capability; under this assumption,
the feedback policy is optimized. Later in the case, where
both transmitter and receiver have the same EH profile, it is
found that the feedback optimization problem can be simpli-
fied, and the feedback bit allocation and transmission schemes
that maximize the upper bound on the ergodic rate are obtained
in this case. In the general case, where the EH profiles are
different, no simple algorithm can be found, but under the
assumption that one EH profile is fixed, optimizing over the
other EH profile has either directional or staircase water-filling
interpretation nature. Different CSI cooperation scenarios are
proposed in [189], namely partial cooperation and signal sep-
aration. In partial cooperation, the CSI is known to both
transmitters and receivers, but with no knowledge of the sig-
nal waveform. The second scenario is signal separation, where
the transmitters and receivers have full knowledge of the CSI
and the signal waveforms. For both scenarios, the problem of
maximizing the information rate subject to the EH constraints
(which is a non-convex problem) is solved by introducing new
parameters for decoupling the problem into two sequential
problems. The solution of this problem defines the achiev-
able rate-energy region’s Pareto boundary, which represents
the optimal rate-energy trade-off.
Reducing the feedback overhead in two-user MIMO SWIPT
channel is the goal of [190] and [191]. In order to lessen
the feedback overhead in [190], a geodesic energy beam-
forming scheme with partial CSI at the energy transmit-
ter, which is proven optimal, is presented. It is shown
that under some constraints on transmit signal covariance
matrix, the feedback overhead of the information transmit-
ter can be reduced by proposing a geodesic information
beamforming scheme. In addition, under the same con-
straints the geodesic information/energy beamforming strategy
is proved optimal. Furthermore, the proposed Geodesic infor-
mation/energy beamforming strategy can be extended to the
k-user case, with multiple information and energy transmitters
case by singular value decomposition based approximations.
While in [191] the feedback design is simplified, by consider-
ing one-bit feedback channel, where this one-bit refers to the
status of the harvested energy of each receiver either decreas-
ing or increasing. According to the feedback CSI information,
the transmitter changes its beamforming weights and acquires
better CSI at the same time by using a training scheme called
analytic centre cutting plane method. The performance analy-
sis of the proposed learning strategy reveals that it can estimate
all the channel simultaneously without any effect on the con-
vergence speed. Moreover, it has superior performance over all
similar strategies specially in the large number of users’ case.
VII. R ESEARCH C HALLENGES AND
F UTURE A PPLICATIONS
The new emerging beamforming EH technique has
presented itself as a promising solution for many power-
constrained applications, but yet it creates many challenges
that need to be addressed in future research to make EH com-
munication systems a universal reality. The challenges and
limitations in EH wireless systems are different from those in
the conventional wireless networks [192]. The randomness and
irregularity of the harvested energy demands the proposition of
new power and information resource allocation strategies, SCI
acquisition policies and robust distributed beamforming algo-
rithms. In addition, considerable research needs to be carried
out regarding finding statistical models, fundamental limits,
and rate-energy trade-off on EH wireless networks. However,
beamforming EH technique has the potential to boost the
performance of many applications and functionalities such
as non-orthogonal multiple access, unmanned aircraft vehi-
cles and Internet-of-Things. These potential directions leave
the door open for further research on future beamforming EH
applications.
A. Fundamental Limits of Wireless Energy
Harvesting Channel
A lot of literature has addressed the classical information-
theoretic problems of capacity and achievable regions in
conventional wireless networks. Most of the theoretical limits
and bounds have been determined, and only some problems
are still open. But the question is: what are the funda-
mental limits of these wireless networks if EH is enabled?
This question is of both theoretical and practical importance,
as determining the capacity and rate regions achieved in a
communication network provides a trusted answer of the com-
munication feasibility. The literature is scarce with regards
to investigate the fundamental limits of information trans-
mission in EH-enabled wireless communication systems. The
achievable AWGN capacity of a stochastic energy harvest-
ing system, with its energy managing policy are analysed
and proposed in [193]. Harvested energy managing scheme
and the theoretical capacity of master and child node connec-
tion are analysed in [194]. Fundamental limits in EH-enabled
machine-to-machine communication are evaluated and exam-
ined in [195]. Here the impacts of the system parameters like
implementation losses and the amount of available energy
on the theoretical bounds are evaluated. However, the theo-
retical capacity of EH-enabled communication system is not
yet determined from an information theory point of view. All
previous channel law derivations are done under endless bat-
tery assumptions in Gaussian channels. Thus, deriving the
fundamental limits of EH communications in different scenar-
ios such as finite battery capacity, side information availability
and capacity-achieving coding and power managing schemes
are still open and further research is needed [196].
B. Channel State Information
Exploiting multi-antenna techniques in wireless EH systems
is highly dependent on the availability of CSI at the transmitter
ALSABA et al.: BEAMFORMING IN WIRELESS EH COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS: SURVEY
side. However, in EH communication system the process of
CSI attainment from both ID and EH receivers is not triv-
ial. As EH receiver might be a simple EH circuit without any
baseband implementation to convey its own channel condi-
tions. Hence, research regarding finding solutions in order to
acquire simple EH receivers CSI signals are needed. On the
other hand, in EH communication networks, ID receiver suf-
fers from both information and energy interference signals that
impair its CSI signals. In addition, accurate channel state is
difficult to acquire or predict, as it is time-varying because of
the dynamic activity nature of the wireless network, and chan-
nel estimation process can’t be carried out frequently due to
energy limitations. This imperfect knowledge of CSI should
be taken into consideration as it causes high degradation on
full system performance, especially in multi-antenna system
case. Thus, robust beamforming designs that can handle this
imperfect SCI problem, new CSI acquisition technique and
feedback mechanisms in EH-enabled wireless communication
systems are needed.
C. Resources Allocation Policies
Energy resources allocation policies in EH-enabled com-
munication systems are with higher complexity than that
of conventional systems, as their objective is changed from
minimizing the power consumption in the conventional
systems to a continuous optimizing process over time in EH
networks [197]. Furthermore, as the devices in EH com-
munications systems are power constrained, these policies
should be of low computation and signalling complexity, with-
out causing any feedback overhead. They are attempts to
develop some resource allocation algorithms for this challeng-
ing type of networks, such as spend-what-you-get, constant
rate, energy storage threshold-based and energy storage-linear
policies [198]. However, most of the proposed algorithms are
designed for single node or single link scenario, and can’t be
extended easily from these stochastic models to larger sce-
narios. Hence, proposing low-computation resource allocation
algorithms that optimize the power consumption over time
in more sophisticated multi-nodes and connections network
models is still open.
D. Physical Layer Security
Beamforming EH techniques can be exploited in physical
layer security by transmitting the energy signals waveform as
a Gaussian pseudo-random sequence, that is known a priori
to all legitimate receivers. This technique can provide secure
communication, as this sequence can serve as interference to
illegitimate eavesdroppers, while can be cancelled easily at
legitimate users terminals by means of beamforming technol-
ogy [92]. In addition, secure communication can be guaranteed
by letting nearby nodes transmit jamming or AN signals to
impair the potential eavesdroppers channels. The processes of
generating and broadcasting these signals drain the terminal
battery, which can be compensated by wireless charging.
Furthermore, in order to locate and deliver a sufficient energy
amount to the jammers nodes, multi-antenna techniques like
beamforming are important. However, exploiting physical
1353
layer in multi-antenna EH-enabled communication systems
is more challenging than conventional wireless systems for
three reasons. Firstly, the EH nodes in the network might try
to decode the information message sent to the intended and
hence, potential eavesdroppers. Secondly, malicious nodes are
usually not active, and acquiring its CSI in order to build the
beamforming vector is quite difficult. Thirdly, in EH networks,
transmitters try to increase the transmit power to facilitate
energy transfer, that leads to higher potential leakage due to
the open nature of wireless networks [18]. Therefore, many
research directions toward guaranteeing secure communication
in beamforming EH communication systems are still open to
be explored.
E. Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles
Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles (UAV) surveillance and recon-
naissance systems are widely used in many military and
civilian applications. Over the last decades, the evolution of
UAVs is shifting towards increasingly smaller aircraft vehicles.
The endurance or maximum flight time of small size UAVs is
problematic as they need more fuel or batteries to perform
longer journeys, but yet they are small and lightweight so
can’t afford large payloads. EH is an attractive solution for
increasing the UAVs endurance by proving a source of energy
without adding any significant payloads or increasing the size
of the fuel or battery system. Furthermore, Providing the UAVs
by wireless power can’t be carried out by simple omnidirec-
tional energy broadcasting, the location of the UAV should be
acquired, and the power signal must be directed toward it in
order to guarantee the deliverance of high power levels to the
UAV. To this end techniques like beamforming and directional
communications are needed. UAV is a potential application
for beamforming EH techniques that leaves the door open for
more research to be carried out in this area.
F. Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access
Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) has been recog-
nised as the potential multiple access schemes for fifth gener-
ation (5G) communication system, for its attractive features
of spectral efficiency, low latency and massive connectiv-
ity [199], [200]. The key idea of NOMA is to use power
domain for multiple access, whereas the previous communica-
tion generations have been exploiting the time/frequency/code
domain, yielding better system performance. In few litera-
ture, NOMA is combined with multiple-antenna techniques
like beamforming (NOMA-BF) to exploit both power and spa-
tial domains to enhance SINR [201], or to increase the spatial
multiplexing gain [199], [202] by serving more than one user
per each beamforming vector. On the other hand, NOMA and
energy harvesting techniques are merged in some of the lit-
erature to enhance both energy and spectral efficiency and
overcome energy and spectrum scarcity in the system [203].
Sun et al. [204] and Liu et al. [205] introduce SWIPT to
NOMA system to encourage strong users to relay weak users’
information messages as this collaboration won’t drain their
batteries. While WPCN scheme is merged with NOMA uplink
system to increase the individual data rate in [206]. Merging
1354 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 20, NO. 2, SECOND QUARTER 2018
NOMA, beamforming EH techniques is a future work that
should be taken into consideration, as these techniques are
essential elements of the coming communication systems, and
combining them yields better spectral and energy efficiency
with higher sum rates, and stimulates the users to cooperate
in more effective way [207].
G. Internet of Things
It is highly believed the Internet of Things (IoT) will be
one of the anticipated services provided by the 5G com-
munication system. IoT is a sophisticated architecture that
allows enormous number of devices to be connected and com-
municate with each other. As these devices are intended to
communicate without any direct human interference, features
like self-sustainable and long lifetime communications are
crucial requirements in the implementation of such system.
Thus, adopting devices that are capable of harvesting energy
from external resources and adopting EH transmission tech-
niques are highly advised. Wireless EH-enabled IoT system
has been proven to be a promising scheme for improving the
lifetime and the sustainability of the IoT systems, in addi-
tion to its appealing features of simplicity in implementation
and availability [208]. Furthermore, introducing multi-antenna
techniques like “Cooperative Beamforming” to IoT systems is
proved to achieve higher energy efficiency, in addition to pro-
vide a simple framework to exploit the physical layer security
in the corresponding system [209].
H. Cognitive Radio Networks
Multi-antenna application in CRNs is a desirable solution
for compensating high energy consumption due to continuous
CR operations like spectrum sensing, sharing and mobility, in
addition to the subsequent signal processing and signals trans-
missions [210]. However, beamforming EH in CRNs hasn’t
been addressed adequately in the literature especially for the
underlay paradigm. Underlay scheme has gained a lot of atten-
tion, as it has the potential of increasing total system spectrum
usage efficiency. Beamforming EH technique helps the sec-
ondary users in this paradigm to mitigate the interference
to primary system as locating both primary and secondary
users and exploiting the extra spatial dimension by transmit-
ting in the opposite direction of the primary users yield lower
interference levels at the primary system [211]. In addition,
beamforming EH can be exploited in the hybrid underlay-relay
paradigm, where secondary users are allowed to transmit even
if the interference caused is at higher levels, but in return they
relay the primary systems’ signals [156], [212]. EH technique
can power the secondary users as an incentive for relaying
the primary users signals without causing high interference by
means of the directional transmissions of beamforming in what
referred to as harvest and cooperate scheme [213]. Hybrid
overlay-underlay paradigm [214] is another hybrid paradigm
that can be a potential application for beamforming EH. The
hybrid overlay-underlay paradigm captures the benefits of both
the overlay and underlay spectrum access techniques, by using
both non-utilized and under-utilized spectra. In this hybrid
paradigm the primary users’ activity is sensed. If idle, the sec-
ondary users work in overlay mode and transmit at maximum
power for higher throughput. Otherwise, they select underlay
mode and transmit with lower power. This hybrid approach
improves the throughput of the secondary system, without
causing any QoS degradation of the primary system. Again
multi-antenna EH technique represents a promising solution
for this hybrid scheme, as directional transmissions and wire-
less charging features provided by beamforming EH yield
lower interference in addition to guaranteeing the deliverance
of adequate energy levels to compensate the power drains
by the additional signal processing and paradigms switching
involved by this hybrid paradigm.
Another promising area for future research is energy har-
vesting beamforming in FD-CRNs. In conventional CRN or
HD-CRNs, secondary users can either sense the white space
or transmit. Thus, the secondary user spends a significant
portion of the given time in sensing the spectrum to ensure
that the sensing process is accurate as imperfect sensing
results in data loss and undesired interference to the primary
system. As a result, the sensing stage might take a consid-
erable time when compared to that of the transmit process
yielding lower secondary system’s throughput. Furthermore,
spectrum sensing and transmission in HD manner requires
two different channels for data transmission and reception.
The two dedicated channels transmission can be considered
as a waste of the scarce spectrum, in addition to the latency
resulting from sensing the white space for the two channels.
Therefore, sensing spectrum in transmitting in FD manner can
improve the system performance remarkably [215]. Another
approach of FD mode in CRNs, is primary and secondary
systems cooperation, where the secondary base station relays
the primary signal, and in return it can transmit its own sec-
ondary signal [167]. Again, working in HD manner in this
scheme will make the cooperation process less productive
due to the need of two orthogonal white space resources and
urge to work in DF mode to improve the system through-
put. Exploiting FD mode in CRNs enhances both spectrum
utilization and overall system throughput. Furthermore, FD
implementation can be extended to secure CRNs to enhance
the information security via transmitting a jamming signal
to impair the eavesdropper channel [216]. Yet, working in
FD mode yields unwanted self-interference signal resulting
from the small distance between transmitting and receiv-
ing antennas, making the FD system impractical. However,
beamforming can be exploited at the receiving and transmit-
ting antennas to mitigate the self-interference signal. Since
each communication link in FD system forms beams, a min-
imized self-interference level with higher data rate can be
achieved [217]. Moreover, in beamforming EH approach this
self-interference signal can be seen as another source of energy
if harvested at the FD device, or harvest-and-jam approach
can be exploited to use the harvested power in transmitting
jamming signals to improve the information security of CRNs.
However, beamforming energy harvesting approaches have not
yet been investigated in detail with respect to FD-CRNs. More
studies are needed to take EH-beamforming into considera-
tion for self-interference harvesting and exploiting physical
ALSABA et al.: BEAMFORMING IN WIRELESS EH COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS: SURVEY
layer security in FD-CRNs. Self-interference and spectrum
sensing approaches that exploit EH-beamforming represent
challenging future research directions in FD-CRNs.
VIII. C ONCLUSION
A contemporary survey of the existing literature in the
domain of beamforming wireless energy harvesting enabled
communication has been presented. Due to the advantages
of multiple-antenna techniques in wireless energy harvesting
communication systems, many new research is performed in
this area. Literature has been categorized according to the
network topology, broadcast, relay and cognitive radio chan-
nel. The different approaches in the corresponding networks
are organized according to the different beamforming design
objectives approaches, with paying more attention to physical
layer security implementation. Feedback process and future
challenges and applications have also been discussed.
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Yamen Alsaba received the B.Eng. degree in
electrical and telecommunication engineering from
the Higher Institute of Applied Science and
Technology, Damascus, Syria, in 2005 and the
M.S. degree from Supelec, Paris, France, in 2010.
He is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree with
the Wireless Communication Center, Universiti
Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru, Malaysia. His
research interests include simultaneous wireless
information and power transfer, nonorthogonal
multiple access, beamforming, physical layer secu-
rity, large scale network analysis, and 5G.
1360 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 20, NO. 2, SECOND QUARTER 2018
Sharul Kamal Abdul Rahim received the degree
in electrical engineering from the University of
Tennessee, USA, in 1996, the M.Sc. degree in
engineering (communication engineering) from the
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in 2001,
and the Ph.D. degree in wireless communication
systems from the University of Birmingham, U.K.,
in 2007. He is currently an Associate Professor
with the Wireless Communication Centre, Faculty
of Electrical Engineering, UTM Skudai. He has
published over 50 journal papers and technical pro-
ceedings on rain attenuations, smart antenna system, microwave design, and
reconfigurable antenna in national and international journals and conferences.
His research interest is smart antenna on communication systems. He is also
a member of IEEE Malaysia Section, the Board of Engineer Malaysia, the
Institute of Engineer Malaysia, and Eta Kappa Nu Chapter, International
Electrical Engineering Honour Society, University of Tennessee.
Chee Yen Leow (S’08–M’12) received the B.Eng.
degree in computer engineering from Universiti
Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Johor Bahru, Malaysia,
in 2007 and the Ph.D. degree from Imperial College
London, U.K., in 2011. Since 2007, he has been
with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, UTM. He
is currently a Senior Lecturer with the Faculty and
a member of the Wireless Communication Center,
Higher Institution Centre of Excellence, UTM. His
research interests include cooperative communica-
tion, MIMO, UAV communication, physical layer
security, convex optimization, communications theory, wireless power transfer
and communication, nonorthogonal multiple access, and 5G.