An Energy Efficient Power Allocation Method for NOMA-Based VLC Systems

We present an optimal power allocation method to improve the energy efficiency (EE) of visible light communications (VLC) based on non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). The EE optimization model is established under the constraints of minimum data rate, maximum transmission power, successive interference cancellation (SIC) and direct current (DC) bias of the multiplexing light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Then an iterative power allocation algorithm is proposed to exploit the solution of the EE optimization problem. The simulation results show that the proposed power allocation algorithm can significantly improve the system EE.