Efficient Power Allocation and Saving Framework for VLC-Enabled Indoor Networks With Crowded Heterogeneous Obstacles

The widespread deployment of white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for lighting offers a unique opportunity to develop ubiquitous indoor communication based on visible light communication (VLC) technology and accurate localization based on visible light positioning (VLP) technology. However, the implementation of such systems in crowded indoor environments with dynamic blockages of varying sizes and shapes introduces new design challenges. These challenges also include dynamic blockage identification and accurate 3-D obstacle localization. Previous research has presented methods for precise 3-D obstacle identification and localization, but none has harnessed this information to improve communication reliability. Therefore, this article introduces a novel optimized LED power management framework that utilizes the estimated locations of obstacles to improve communication performance in VLC-enabled indoor networks. The main objective of the proposed framework is to maximize the achieved data rates and power savings in blockage-rich indoor environments by optimizing the LED power allocation while adhering to predefined bit error rate (BER), permissible localization errors, and illumination constraints. Based on the proposed optimal LED power allocation, a power-saving optimization framework with the objective of improving the energy efficiency of the system is also proposed. The simulation results indicate that the proposed optimal LED power management framework can result in significant power savings, approximately 68% for the 16-LED configuration and 72% for the 32-LED configuration, compared to the equal power allocation policy. Furthermore, the article derives closed-form expressions for the BER and localization error as a function of the operating environment parameters (e.g., number of blockages and angle of light irradiance). Furthermore, the results demonstrate that a localization error of approximately 6 and 4 cm is sufficient to achieve maximum data rates with 16 and 32 LEDs, respectively.