User-Centric Secure Cell Formation for Visible Light Networks With Statistical Delay Guarantees

In next-generation wireless networks, providing secure transmission and delay guarantees are two critical goals. However, either of them requires a concession on the transmission rate. In this article, we consider a visible light network consisting of multiple access points and multiple users. Our first objective is to mathematically evaluate the achievable rate under constraints on delay and security. The second objective is to provide a cell formation with customized statistical delay and security guarantees for each user. First, we propose a user-centric design called secure cell formation, in which artificial noise is considered, and flexible user scheduling is determined. Then, based on the effective capacity theory, we derive the statistical-delay-constrained secrecy rate and formulate the cell formation problem as a stochastic optimization problem (OP). Further, based on the Lyapunov optimization theory, we transform the stochastic OP into a series of evolutionary per-slot drift-plus-penalty OPs. Finally, a modified particle swarm optimization algorithm and an interference graph-based user-centric scheduling algorithm are proposed to solve the OPs. We obtain a dynamic independent set of scheduled users as well as secure cell formation parameters. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve a better delay-constrained secrecy rate than the existing cell formation approaches.