Energy Efficiency in Secure VLC Networks With SLIPT

Abstract

This letter focuses on maximizing the energy efficiency (EE) for secure visible light communication (VLC) network with simultaneous lightwave information and power transfer (SLIPT) by optimizing the beamforming vectors and direct current (DC) bias under the constraints of the minimal rate requirement, the secure transmission requirement, the minimal energy harvesting (EH) requirement, and total power budget at the transmitters. To solve the non-convex optimization problem, we present a dual-layer iterative algorithm based on Dinkelbach’s and successive convex approximation (SCA) methods. An efficient algorithm is also designed to find a good initial point to accelerate the convergence. Simulation results show three typical phenomena: (1) the EE first remains unchanged and then decreases with the increasing EH requirement; (2) compared with the traditional sum-rate maximization design, our proposed approach achieves notable EE performance gain under the secure constraints; (3) the number of the authorized receivers, as well as the number of the unauthorized receivers, imposes significant impact on the EE performance.