Zero-Energy Devices for 6G: Technical Enablers at a Glance
López, Onel; Singh, Ritesh Kumar; Phan-Huy, Dinh-Thuy; Katranaras, Efstathios; Mazloum, Nafiseh; Ruttik, Kalle; Jäntti, Riku; Khan, Hamza; Rosabal, Osmel; Alexias, Pavlos; Raghuwanshi, Prasoon; Ruiz-Guirola, David; Singh, Bikramjit; Höglund, Andreas; Van, Dung Pham; Azarbahram, Amirhossein; Famaey, Jeroen (2025-04-30)
IEEE
30.04.2025
O. López et al., "Zero-Energy Devices for 6G: Technical Enablers at a Glance," in IEEE Internet of Things Magazine, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 14-22, May 2025, doi: 10.1109/IOTM.001.2400138
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
© Copyright 2025 IEEE. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
© Copyright 2025 IEEE. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202505083187
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202505083187
Tiivistelmä
Abstract
Low-cost, resource-constrained, mainte-nance-free, and energy-harvesting (EH) Internet of Things (IoT) devices, referred to as zero-energy devices (ZEDs), are rapidly attracting attention from industry and academia due to their myriad of applications. To date, such devices remain primar-ily unsupported by modern IoT connectivity solutions due to their intrinsic fabrication, hardware, deployment, and operation limitations, while lacking clarity on their key technical enablers and prospects. Herein, we address this by discussing the main characteristics and enabling technologies of ZEDs within the next generation of mobile networks, specifically focusing on unconventional EH sources, multi-source EH, power management, energy storage solutions, manufacturing material and practices, backscattering, and low-complexity receivers. Moreover, we highlight the need for lightweight and energy-aware computing, communication, and scheduling protocols, while discussing potential approaches related to tiny machine learning (TinyML), duty cycling, and infrastructure enablers like radio frequency wire-less power transfer and wake-up protocols. Chal-lenging aspects and open research directions are identified and discussed in all the cases. Finally, we showcase an experimental ZED proof-of-con-cept related to ambient cellular backscattering.
Low-cost, resource-constrained, mainte-nance-free, and energy-harvesting (EH) Internet of Things (IoT) devices, referred to as zero-energy devices (ZEDs), are rapidly attracting attention from industry and academia due to their myriad of applications. To date, such devices remain primar-ily unsupported by modern IoT connectivity solutions due to their intrinsic fabrication, hardware, deployment, and operation limitations, while lacking clarity on their key technical enablers and prospects. Herein, we address this by discussing the main characteristics and enabling technologies of ZEDs within the next generation of mobile networks, specifically focusing on unconventional EH sources, multi-source EH, power management, energy storage solutions, manufacturing material and practices, backscattering, and low-complexity receivers. Moreover, we highlight the need for lightweight and energy-aware computing, communication, and scheduling protocols, while discussing potential approaches related to tiny machine learning (TinyML), duty cycling, and infrastructure enablers like radio frequency wire-less power transfer and wake-up protocols. Chal-lenging aspects and open research directions are identified and discussed in all the cases. Finally, we showcase an experimental ZED proof-of-con-cept related to ambient cellular backscattering.
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