Electrical and Electronics Engineering PhD Thesis Defense by Oktay Çetinkaya

KOÇ UNIVERSITY

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SCIENCES & ENGINEERING

ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

PhD THESIS DEFENSE BY OKTAY ÇETİNKAYA

Title: Next-generation Internet of Energy Harvesting Things

Speaker: Oktay Çetinkaya

Time: January 19, 2018, 14:30

Place: ENG 208

Koç University

Rumeli Feneri Yolu

Sariyer, Istanbul

Thesis Committee Members:

Prof. Özgür Barış Akan (Advisor, Koç University)

Prof. Murat Tekalp (Koç University)

Prof. Fatih Alagöz (Boğaziçi University)

Assoc. Prof. Öznur Özkasap (Koç University)

Asst. Prof. Ahmet Serbes (Yıldız Technical University)

Abstract:

Internet of Things (IoT) is a prominent enabling technology that facilitates efficient monitoring and control of any thing whenever and wherever using massively distributed sensors. However, its operation is severely limited due to finite-capacity batteries. This issue necessitates the employment of an auxiliary or a totally distinct power source, where energy harvesting (EH) technology comes into prominence as envisioning Internet of Energy Harvesting Things. However, in parallel to ever-evolving demands of specific IoT applications, energy scarcity problem is further intensified. This, in result, drove research efforts to find more efficient and reliable EH procedures. To that end, this thesis mainly focuses on the development of novel EH and power provisioning techniques, based on but not limited to electric field, for low-power wireless communication systems tailored to IoT. The design principles of the proposed techniques are designated, and their competence in sustaining communications are validated by real-life experiments performed on test-beds and prototypes developed. In addition, their applicability to diverse domains and performance in meeting the needs of corresponding services are investigated. After model development, applicable methods, such as harvesting efficiency maximization and throughput optimization, to improve the performance of proposed EH procedures are studied. Next, energy neutrality by hybridization is examined to cope with randomness and variance in EH output, evolving IoT devices to totally battery-less, i.e., autonomous entities. This vision is implemented to drone networks to achieve enhanced connectivity by overcoming energy limitations. Finally, to diminish spectrum scarcity problem emerged due to myriad of IoT devices, unification of cognitive radio and EH technologies is studied.