Modeling wireless power transfer in a network of smart devices: a compartmental system approach

摘要

Wireless power transfer technology provides a possible sustainable and cost-effective way to prolong indefinitely the lifetime of networks of smart devices needed in future Internet-of-Things, while equipping them with batteries of limited capacity. In this paper we show that the theory of compartmental systems, positive interconnected systems exchanging 'mass' (here power) and ruled by mass conservation laws, provides a suitable framework to describe wireless power transfer networks. In particular we show that sustainability of the network of smart devices corresponds to each of them being alimented, directly or indirectly, by nodes having an external source of power, condition known as inflow connectivity in the compartmental systems literature. The framework allows to compute the topology which is optimal in terms of maximizing the overall efficiency of the power transfer.