Energy efficient resource allocation for mixed RF/VLC heterogeneous wireless networks

Developing energy efficient wireless communication networks has become crucial due to the associated environmental and financial benefits. Visible light communication (VLC) has emerged as a promising candidate for achieving energy efficient wireless communications. Integrating VLC with radio frequency (RF)-based wireless networks has improved the achievable data rates of mobile users. In this paper, we investigate the energy efficiency benefits of integrating VLC with RF-based networks in a heterogeneous wireless environment. We formulate and solve the problem of power and bandwidth allocation for energy efficiency maximization of a heterogeneous network composed of a VLC system and an RF communication system. Then, we investigate the impact of the system parameters on the energy efficiency of the mixed RF/VLC heterogeneous network. Numerical results are conducted to corroborate the superiority in performance of the proposed hybrid system. The impact of hybrid system parameters on the overall energy efficiency is also quantified.