PAINLESS relates to H2020-MSCA with a vision to produce the first generation of experts in a radically new wave of energy autonomous networks that will revolutionize the wireless networking technology landscape and the plethora of associated vertical business sectors.

Project Objectives

• Establish a training platform for energy neutral BSs: Research training in the field of energy neutrality for future wireless networks is our core aspiration.
• Introduce game-changing performance metrics to motivate the adoption of energy-autonomous infrastructure-less networks: The lifetime of an energy-autonomous access point will be a critical performance indicator in the future networks envisaged in this proposal and is not accounted for explicitly by the current 5G performance metrics.
• Radicalize the management of energy generation, storage and consumption to enable the design of future self-powered networks: Realistic, detailed and scenario-specific energy modelling for ICT has yet to be delivered. Current models of power management in ICT do not take power generation and storage into account, while the power consumption models that exist are either too generic and inaccurate, or simply centered around traditional macro BS operation, and very little is known about the UAV-based BSs.
• Boost by 100x the energy efficiency of wireless transmission by use of energy-neutral BS with optimized access and backhauling techniques: Building on the optimization and power-balancing methodologies of this work, PAINLESS will further deliver the enabling technologies for implementing energy-neutral network operation.
• Revolutionize access provision through flexible, off-the-grid, UAV-based access points: To realize a truly portable network for the access provisioning demands outlined above, a new generation of UAV-oriented signal processing, resource optimization and control technologies are required.
• Introduce a holistic optimization of energy harvesting (EH), wireless information and power transfer: Towards a power-autonomous and reconfigurable network with nodes of varying power generation and storage capabilities entering and leaving the network, state-of-the-art traffic management on its own falls short and new techniques for sharing both traffic load and power resources are required.
• Define and demonstrate, for the first time, self-powered access points: Based on the techniques and performance metrics developed above, we will demonstrate proof-of-concept wireless transmission with power autonomous BSs

Partnership

• University College London
• Alba Graduate Business School
• University of Cyprus
• Centre National de la Recherchescientifique CNRS
• University of Manchester
• Aalborg Universitet
• Lyra Electronics Ltd
• Nokia Ireland Limited
• RESEIWE
• UPSaclay
• Orion Innovations PC
• Rio Systems
• Universitat Pompeu Fabra