Integrating Sensing, Communication, and Power Transfer: From Theory to Practice

To support the development of internet-of-things applications, an enormous population of low-power devices are expected to be incorporated in wireless networks performing sensing and communication tasks. As a key technology for improving the data collection efficiency, integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) enables simultaneous data transmission and radar sensing by reusing the same radio signals. In addition to information carriers, wireless signals can also serve as energy delivers, which enables simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT). To improve the energy and spectrum efficiency, the advantages of ISAC and SWIPT are expected to be exploited, leading to the emerging technology of integrating sensing, communication, and power transfer (ISCPT). In this article, a timely overview of ISCPT is provided with the description of the fundamentals, the characterization of the theoretical boundary, the discussion on the key technologies, and the demonstration of the implementation platform.