Maximizing Uplink Data Transmission of LEO-Satellite-Based Wireless-Powered IoT

This article analyses the uplink performance of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices communicating with the low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. We consider a scenario where the IoT devices are deployed in the hard-to-reach areas. Hence, energy harvesting is the only sustainable solution. Due to the battery-free assumption of the IoT devices, we consider a K -tier power beacon (PB) network to provide a sustainable energy supply for the IoT network. We particularly focus on two uplink communication scenarios: 1) direct communication from the IoT devices to the LEO satellites and 2) indirect communication via the gateways (GWs). The system's performance is evaluated based on the two-stage 'harvest-then-transmit' strategy, in which the IoT device harvests energy from all available energy sources during the first stage, referred to as the harvesting subslot. The harvested energy is then utilized to transmit information to its desired receiver in the second stage, known as the communication subslot. More precisely, we derive the joint uplink coverage probability if the following two conditions are satisfied: 1) the transmit power of the typical IoT device is sufficient and 2) the received signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SINR) is above a predefined threshold. Furthermore, we investigate the effect of the proposed techniques on the performance metrics, such as the average number of successful data packet transmissions per day as well as the average amount of data uploaded per day. Finally, we explore the optimal network parameters to improve energy harvesting, communication reliability, and coverage for both the direct and indirect scenarios.