Capacity of Gaussian MAC Powered by Energy Harvesters without Storage Buffer

Abstract

We consider a Gaussian multiple access channel (GMAC) where the users are sensor nodes powered by energy harvesters. The energy harvester has no buffer to store the harvested energy and hence the energy need to be expended immediately. We assume that the decoder has perfect knowledge of the energy harvesting process. We characterize the capacity region of such a GMAC. We also provide the capacity region when one of the users has infinite buffer to store the energy harvested. Next we find the achievable rates when the energy harvesting information is not available at the decoder.