Predictive and Proactive Power Allocation For Energy Efficiency in Dynamic OWC Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a proactive power allocation framework for energy-efficient optical wireless communication networks, leveraging demand prediction to optimize user association and power distribution in dynamic environments.

Contribution

It proposes the PDP-OPA framework that predicts user demands and allocates resources proactively, improving energy efficiency and system performance in dynamic OWC settings.

Findings

Significant improvement in energy efficiency over baseline methods

Enhanced sum rate and reduced bit error rate

Close-to-optimal performance demonstrated through simulations

Abstract

Driven by the exponential growth in data traffic and the limitations of Radio Frequency (RF) networks, Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) has emerged as a promising solution for high data rate communication. However, the inherently dynamic nature of OWC environments resulting from user mobility, and time-varying user demands poses significant challenges for enhanced and sustainable performance. Energy efficiency (EE) is a critical metric for the sustainable operation of next generation wireless networks. Achieving high EE in dynamic OWC environments, especially under time-varying user distributions and heterogeneous service requirements, remains a complex task. In this work, we formulate a discrete-time EE optimisation problem in a dynamic OWC to maximise energy efficiency through determining user connectivity and power allocation. Solving this problem in real time is computationally demanding due to the coupling of user association and power allocation variables over discrete time slots. Therefore, we propose a Probabilistic Demand Prediction and Optimised Power Allocation (PDP-OPA) framework which predicts user arrivals, departures, and traffic demands. Based on these predictions, the framework proactively determines AP-user associations and allocates power dynamically using a Lagrangian-based optimisation strategy. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed PDP-OPA significantly enhances system performance, providing solutions close to the optimal ones. The proposed framework improves energy efficiency, sum rate, and bit error rate (BER) compared to distance-based user association and uniform power allocation, validating its effectiveness for real time and adaptive resource management in dynamic OWC systems.