SteerVLC: A Joint Deployment and Beam-Steering Optimization for VLC-Enabled UAV Networks

Visible light communication (VLC)-enabled unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) networks have emerged as a novel approach for simultaneous illumination and communication. Among the prominent challenges in VLC are shadowing and low reflected energy. Light-emitting diode (LED) beam-steering is a promising technique to overcome these challenges. In this paper, we consider the problem of joint UAV deployment, LED beam-steering, cell association, and power allocation to satisfy a set of illumination and data rate requirements for stochastically distributed users. Towards addressing this problem, we develop SteerVLC, a novel scheme for UAV networks equipped with steerable LEDs that jointly optimizes UAV deployment, LED beam-steering, cell association, and power allocation. While accounting for illumination interference, SteerVLC minimizes the number of UAVs needed to satisfy the illumination and data rate requirements of stochastically distributed users and minimizes the total transmission power of the steerable LEDs. Using an e-controlled two-stage mixed-integer linear programming approach, SteerVLC can effectively manage the tradeoff between the required number of UAVs and the required transmission power. SteerVLC is evaluated under various system parameters, user demands, and user distributions. Our results demonstrate the superiority of SteerVLC in managing the resources of a VLC-enabled UAV network and optimizing its performance.