Optimizing Networked Flying Platform Deployment and Access Point Association in FSO-Based Fronthaul Networks

Applying interconnected networked flying platforms (NFPs) as fronthauling is a promising solution to flexibly reconfigure the fronthaul network upon requests. Meanwhile, free space optical (FSO) communications has been demonstrated to achieve a higher data rate, longer transmission range, and less interference between two endpoints as compared to traditional radio frequency communications. This letter applies FSO communications in NFP relay networks, which can significantly enhance the network throughput. We investigate and formulate the joint NFP deployment and access point (AP) association problem in the context of an FSO-based NFP relay network, and design an efficient algorithm to solve it. Simulation results demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithm.