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The expected rise of small devices in the Internet of Things (IoT) require these devices to operate without any power interruption. The replacement and recharging of batteries in these widely deployed small IoT devices is a challenging task. Recently, Ambient Backscatter Communications (AmB-Com) is introduced, which enables passive IoT devices to harvest power from nearby Radio Frequency (RF) signals. AmB-Com allows the passive devices to harvest energy and simultaneously transmit their information using the reflection of incident RF signals. This survey paper covers various types of ambient RF signals as the source of energy to energize passive IoT devices. Then, we show the utilization of multiple frequency bands to power up passive devices. In order to keep the balance between energy harvesting and information transfer, we discuss efficient power transfer schemes for AmB-Com in addition to energy management, resource allocation, and optimization techniques. Finally, we cover the performance of AmB-Com systems and highlight the research challenges in AmB-Com. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Progressive growth of smartphones and number of users in the network demands for increase in network capacity. Proliferation in network capacity in turn triggers the problems like increase in Capital and Operational Expenditures (CAPEX/OPEX), decrease in Quality of Services (QoS), inflation in power consumption and the like. To cater the aforementioned network challenges, Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) is introduced with the capability of centralization, virtualization and co-ordination. The commercialization of C-RAN further faces problems like dynamic resource allocation environment, co-operative transmission and reception techniques, interconnection and management of base band unit (BBU) instances in a BBU pool, etc. Therefore, the social paradigm when blended with C-RAN, the evolved C-RAN, i.e. Social C-RAN, promises to overcome the challenges of C-RAN. We contribute a fresh novel proposal of Social C-RAN in which network elements will be connected with the help of social relationships and properties they exhibit. Our quantitative results show that the vision of social layer introduced in the C-RAN architecture automates several functions like handover, frequency assignment, dynamic resource allocation and results in reducing communication delays in various applications. We select the potential applications that play a major role in evolving cellular networks and discuss the possibilities to optimize these applications further using our proposed Social C-RAN architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid advancement in communication technological innovations results in proliferation of heterogeneous smart devices in the network. The inter-communication of these devices is usually related to their social behaviour and relationships. Furthermore, upcoming 5G network promises to bind all the network technologies like Internet of Vehicles (IoV), Internet of Things (IoT), Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC), Smart Grids (SG), Big Data, and Device-to-Device (D2D) communications in a common network. To achieve this unified goal, one promising possibility is to exploit social properties of various smart devices used by these technologies. Exploitation of social aspect can dispense optimized networking while avoiding problems like, network congestion, resource allocations, and the like. It also leads to convergence of upcoming 5G network technologies and human society giving rise to a new paradigm known as “socio-5G network technologies”. The state-of-the-art research on socio-5G network technologies is reviewed with the focus on six important technologies that 5G promises to support in one integrated network: IoV, IoT, MCC, SG, Big Data, and D2D communications. We also discuss the open issues related to combining social aspect with above-mentioned technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy efficiency is one of the most distinguished area on which several research groups and organizations across the globe are progressively working. This paper focuses on various technologies for truncating energy consumption in wireless communication. This incorporates new network architecture, network resource management, and supreme physical layer methods. Network architecture embraces multi-hop mobile networks, distributed antennas, diverse networks, etc. Furthermore, network resource management schemes comprise cross-layer optimization, multiple radio access technologies, and the dynamic power saving. The supreme physical layer methods encompass cognitive radio, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), concerted communications, network coding, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), etc. We render an exhaustive survey of such techniques proposed by several organizations across the globe. We also discussed energy efficiency prospect in future wireless communication systems like 5G, mobile cloud computing, Internet of things (IoT), and big data. Finally, we confer the major challenges and open issues in these technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]