Abstract
This paper investigates the joint problem of access point (AP) assignment and power allocation in a three-tier hybrid radio frequency/visible light communication (VLC) heterogeneous network (HetNet). The target is to maximize the HetNet's sum-rate under practical constraints such as APs' power budgets and users' quality-of-service constraints, while maintaining an acceptable level of illumination in the VLC system. This is an NP-hard problem due to the binary and continuous optimization variables. To obtain an efficient solution, the original problem is first reformulated into the well-known college admissions model. Then, a distributed and low-complexity algorithm based on matching theory and convex optimization is proposed to solve the joint problem. Simulation results highlight the robustness of the proposed algorithm and its significant gain in network sum-rate as compared to the considered benchmarks. Finally, the theoretical analysis on convergence, stability, and complexity of the proposed algorithm is provided.