Energy Harvesting and Wireless Power Transfer for 6G Sustainable IoT Networks
A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "F: Electrical Engineering".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 June 2026 | Viewed by 29
Special Issue Editors
Interests: IoT; energy efficient communication; wireless communication; wireless sensor networks; edge communication; sustainable and resource constrained networks; AI; ML; federated learning
Interests: wireless/cellular communication; machine learning; renewable energy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The rapid evolution toward 6G and the massive deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) devices are dramatically increasing the energy demand of communication and computing infrastructures. Conventional battery-powered operation and grid-dependent supply are becoming unsustainable, especially for large-scale sensor networks, pervasive edge devices, electric vehicles (EVs), and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), all of which require long lifetimes, high reliability, and reduced maintenance. As a result, energy harvesting and wireless power transfer (WPT) have emerged as key enablers for sustainable energy networks, allowing devices to scavenge energy from RF, solar, vibration, and thermal sources and to receive power wirelessly from dedicated transmitters. Integrated with 6G-capable wireless communications and intelligent control, these technologies can support self-sustained IoT nodes, green edge computing, smart grids, microgrids, and next-generation EV and UAV systems.
This Special Issue aims to present and disseminate the most recent advances related to the theory, design, modeling, control, implementation, and application of energy harvesting and wireless power transfer for 6G sustainable IoT networks. The Special Issue welcomes contributions that address fundamental concepts, enabling technologies, architectures, and practical demonstrations that improve the energy efficiency, reliability, and sustainability of wireless communication systems tightly coupled with modern energy networks.
Topics of interest for publication include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Energy harvesting techniques (RF, solar, vibration, thermal, hybrid) for IoT devices, sensors, and 6G communication nodes;
- Wireless power transfer (near-field and far-field), SWIPT, and metasurface/RIS-assisted WPT for sustainable edge and sensor networks;
- Architectures and control strategies for integrating energy harvesting and WPT into smart grids, microgrids, and renewable-rich distribution systems;
- Energy harvesting and WPT solutions for electric vehicles, including V2G/V2X, dynamic wireless charging, and vehicular sensor networks;
- UAV- and drone-assisted wireless power transfer, aerial relays, and energy provisioning for remote or emergency IoT deployments;
- Machine learning, including generative AI, federated and reinforcement learning, and graph neural networks, for dynamic RF energy harvesting, beamforming, topology optimization, predictive power allocation, and joint spectrum–power–resource management in energy harvesting and WPT-enabled 6G networks;
- Cooperative and cognitive radio techniques for energy-efficient spectrum sharing in renewable-powered wireless systems;
- Hardware design, prototyping, and experimental testbeds for energy harvesting circuits, antennas, rectennas, and WPT systems;
- Reliability, fault tolerance, and condition monitoring in harvesting- and WPT-powered IoT/communication infrastructures;
- Security and privacy in energy-harvesting and WPT-enabled networks, including zero-trust and post-quantum-ready protocols for EV–IoT–UAV ecosystems.
Dr. Pratik Goswami
Dr. Adeel Iqbal
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- smart grids and microgrids
- sustainable energy networks
- energy harvesting
- wireless power transfer (WPT)
- electric vehicles (EVs) and UAVs
- 6G and IoT
- machine learning and AI
- spectrum sharing and cognitive radio
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