With the explosive growth of wireless communication industry, the energy consumption of wireless networks and devices is experiencing a dramatic increase. On the other hand, replacing batteries for low-‐cost devices in energy-‐ constrained networks (e.g., wireless sensor networks) is either impossible or expensive. To deal with these issues, energy harvesting appears as an emerging solution which has received a lot of interest, as it powers mobile devices by scavenging energy from the ambient environment (solar, wind, vibration, thermoelectric effects, ambient radio power, etc.). The use of energy harvesting nodes is a promising approach to further increase the energy efficiency of wireless communication systems. In addition, however, it brings about new challenges to the efficient design of communication systems, as there are many theoretical and practical open problems involved.
Edited by: Lisheng Fan, Ioannis Krikidis, Xianfu Lei, Diomidis Michalopoulos, Derrick Wing Kwan and Xiangyun Zhou