Energy Efficient QoS-Based Access Point Selection in Hybrid WiFi and LiFi IoT Networks

Ensuring Quality of Service (QoS) in next-generation networks would be challenging because of the expected manifolds increase in network traffic volume and the massive number of connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The increased resources on end-devices have made it possible to make decisions on the client-side for Access Point (AP) selection. On the other hand, due to power constraints on the client-side, energy efficiency is also essential. This paper presents a client-side energy-efficient AP selection approach for QoS provisioning in hybrid Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) and Light Fidelity (LiFi) networks. Compared to conventional WiFi and LiFi approaches, the proposed technique outperforms them in energy efficiency at any data rate and in QoS provisioning at data rates higher than 10 Mbps for a network of 50 nodes. It is also shown that adapting the uplink transmission power improves the IoT node’s energy efficiency by transmitting at minimal transmission power required to satisfy the throughput QoS constraint. This paper’s contributions include the proposed algorithm, complexity and convergence analyses of the algorithm, simulation-based evaluation, and analysis of the uplink transmission power adaption. The results show that the presented technique could be integrated into next-generation networks for QoS provisioning and improving energy efficiency.