Bandwidth and Power Cost Optimized MAC Protocols for IoT over VLC

Abstract

Increased internet usage and the number of smart devices will lead to spectral scarcity, lack of resources, and high latency in wireless communication. Moreover, Radio Frequency (RF) communication is highly impacted by the Electromagnetic Interference (EMI). To overcome these problems, Visible Light Communication (VLC) is a promising technology supporting high speed, high data-rate, low cost, less EMI, low latency, and license-free spectrum. In wireless sensor networks, one of the significant drawbacks is an energy shortage. However, it is difficult to achieve energy efficiency and network throughput at the same time. Whereas VLC uses low power LEDs, reducing energy consumption substantially. Therefore, we propose the bandwidth and power cost-optimized Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols for the Internet of things (IoT) over VLC in indoor environments. The proposed protocols improve the spectrum efficiency, throughput, and power economy significantly. In this paper, we proposed four protocols to optimize bandwidth and power simultaneously. Among all, Restricted Client Position Aware Single Point of Communication Oriented Intelligent Clustering (RCPA-SPC-O-IC) demonstrated the least power consumption of 68 Watts, highest bandwidth utilization of 98%, lowest spare bandwidth of 12%, and highest life expectancy of 165x104 hours.