Resource allocation in optical beam-steered indoor networks

Optical Wireless (OW) technologies deploying narrow multiwavelength light beams offer a promising alternative to traditional wireless indoor communications as they provide higher bandwidths and overcome the radio spectrum congestion typical of the 2.4 and 5GHz frequency bands. However, unlocking their full potential requires exploring novel control and management techniques. Specifically, there is a need for efficient and intelligent resource management and localization techniques that allot wavelengths and capacity to devices. In this paper we present a resource allocation model for one such indoor optical wireless approach, a Beam-steered Reconfigurable Optical-Wireless System for Energy-efficient communication (BROWSE). BROWSE aims to supply each user within a room with its own downstream infrared light beam with at least 10Gbps throughput, while providing a 60GHz radio channel upstream. Using Integer Linear Programming (ILP) techniques, we have designed and implemented a resource allocation model for the BROWSE OW downstream connection. The designed model optimises the trade-off between energy-consumption and throughput, while providing TDM capabilities to effectively serve densely deployed devices with a limited number of simultaneous available wavelengths. Through several test-scenarios we have assessed the model’s performance, as well as its applicability to future ultra-high bandwidth video streaming applications.