Handover-Aware Scheduling for Small- and Large-Scale VLC Networks

This paper proposes handover-aware scheduling solutions for multi-cell small- and large-scale visible-light communication networks, enabling soft handover. For this, we coordinate the transmissions at the access points (APs), serving the users in different time slots based on their locations with respect to the AP coverage areas for an efficient utilization of the resources. For scenarios where coverage in large areas is needed, we additionally propose clustering solutions to decrease the handover rate. Compared with non-coordinated schemes, the proposed soft handover techniques offers improved performance in terms of user achievable throughput and link reliability.