Anticipatory Approaches for Resource Allocation in LiFi Networks

As a promising solution for future indoor access networks, resource allocation in Visible light communication or LiFi networks is subject to lots of researches. An interesting approach for network algorithm design is to use some knowledge about the future of the network. With this regards, the anticipatory design may improve the performance of the system in terms of delay and throughput. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art anticipatory algorithms proposed in the literature, given different prediction capabilities. The key element that all of these algorithms share is to find an event that correlates the current actions to the performance of the network in the future. Apart from the amount of possible prediction, two main approaches have been proposed for problem formulation. The optimal anticipatory resource allocation problem can be formulated in terms of a T-step look-ahead optimization problem. This approach requires more accurate information about the future of the network and yields higher performance improvements. The objective function can be adjusted to achieve high fairness and throughput or low latency in the system. On the other hand, the resource allocation algorithm can be expressed as a matching problem on a bipartite graph. The partial knowledge of the future can be added to the problem using proper heuristic preference functions.