Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access for Hybrid VLC-RF Networks with Imperfect Channel State Information

The present contribution proposes a general framework for the energy efficiency analysis of a hybrid visible light communication (VLC) and Radio Frequency (RF) wireless system, in which both VLC and RF subsystems utilize nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technology. The proposed framework is based on realistic communication scenarios as it takes into account the mobility of users, and assumes imperfect channel-state information (CSI). In this context, tractable closed-form expressions are derived for the corresponding average sum rate of NOMA-VLC and its orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)-VLC counterparts. It is shown extensively that incurred CSI errors have a considerable impact on the average energy efficiency of both NOMA-VLC and OFDMAVLC systems and hence, they should not be neglected in practical designs and deployments. Interestingly, we further demonstrate that the average energy efficiency of the hybrid NOMA-VLCRF system outperforms NOMA-VLC system under imperfect CSI. Respective computer simulations corroborate the derived analytic results and interesting theoretical and practical insights are provided, which will be useful in the effective design and deployment of conventional VLC and hybrid VLC-RF systems

Introduction to indoor networking concepts and challenges in LiFi

LiFi is networked, bidirectional wireless communication with light. It is used to connect fixed and mobile devices at very high data rates by harnessing the visible light and infrared spectrum. Combined, these spectral resources are 2600 times larger than the entire radio frequency (RF) spectrum. This paper provides the motivation behind why LiFi is a very timely technology, especially for 6th generation (6G) cellular communications. It discusses and reviews essential networking technologies, such as interference mitigation and hybrid LiFi/Wi-Fi networking topologies. We also consider the seamless integration of LiFi into existing wireless networks to form heterogeneous networks across the optical and RF domains and discuss implications and solutions in terms of load balancing. Finally, we provide the results of a real-world hybrid LiFi/Wi-Fi network deployment in a software defined networking testbed. In addition, results from a LiFi deployment in a school classroom are provided, which show that Wi-Fi network performance can be improved significantly by offloading traffic to the LiFi

Energy efficient subchannel and power allocation in cooperative VLC systems

This letter studies the energy efficiency (EE) optimization of cooperative visible light communication (VLC) systems while considering the inter-cell interference and the lineof-sight blockage problems. Specifically, the optimization problem of subchannel and power allocation to maximize EE under transmit power budgets and users' minimum rate constraints is considered. The formulated problem turns out to be a difficult nonlinear fractional program for which a low-complexity iterative solution based on fractional programming theory and the quadratic transform approach is proposed. Extensive simulations are conducted to show the efficacy of the proposed scheme over conventional approaches. In addition, the outage analysis and impacts of varying the transmit power and the subchannel bandwidth on the EE performance are investigated.This work was supported by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) through its Discovery Program, the Memorial University VPR Program, and the Spanish National Project TERESA-ADA (TEC2017-90093-C3-2-R) (MINECO/AEI/FEDER, UE). The associate editor coordinating the review of this letter and approving it for publication was H. Zhang