Mobility-Aware Resource Allocation in VLC Networks Using T-Step Look-Ahead Policy

TL;DR

This paper proposes a mobility-aware resource allocation algorithm for VLC networks using a T-step look-ahead policy, improving speed and fairness by predicting future user locations and channel states.

Contribution

It introduces a novel T-step look-ahead policy for resource allocation in VLC networks, incorporating mobility prediction and a relaxation method for efficient optimization.

Findings

The proposed algorithm is significantly faster than previous methods.

Mobility awareness improves network rate and fairness.

Future channel state prediction enhances resource allocation efficiency.

Abstract

Visible light communication (VLC) uses huge license-free spectral bandwidth of visible light for high-speed wireless communication. Since each VLC access point covers a small area, handovers of mobile users are inevitable. In order to deal with these handovers, developing fast and effective resource allocation algorithms is a challenge. This paper introduces the problem of mobility-aware optimization of resources in VLC networks using the T-step look-ahead policy and employing the notion of handover efficiency. It is shown that the handover efficiency can correlate the overall performance of the network with future actions based on the mobility of users. Due to the stationary nature of indoor optical wireless channels, future channel state information (CSI) can be predicted by anticipating the future locations of users. A resource allocation algorithm is thus proposed, which uses CSI to dynamically allocate network resources to users. To solve this mathematically intractable problem, a novel relaxation method is proposed, which proves to be a useful tool to develop efficient algorithms for network optimization problems with a proportional fairness utility function. The resulting algorithm is extremely faster than the previous method and awareness of mobility enhances the overall performance of the network in terms of rate and fairness utility function.