Path-Following Algorithms for Beamforming and Signal Splitting in RF Energy Harvesting Networks

We consider the joint design of transmit beamforming and receive signal-splitting ratios in the downlink of a wireless network with simultaneous radio-frequency (RF) information and energy transfer. Under constraints on the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) at each user and the total transmit power at the base station, the design objective is to maximize either the sum harvested energy or the minimum harvested energy. We develop a computationally efficient path-following method to solve these challenging nonconvex optimization problems. We mathematically show that the proposed algorithms iteratively progress and converge to locally optimal solutions. Simulation results further show that these locally optimal solutions are the same as the globally optimal solutions for the considered practical network settings.