Massive Machine-Type Communications via Hybrid OWC/RF Networks

In this paper, we investigate the design of a novel hybrid optical wireless communication (OWC)/radio frequency (RF) solution suitable for massive machine-type communication (mMTC). The proposed scenario consists of a massive collection of indoor OWC-based small cells that connect low-cost Internet of Things (IoT) devices to the network infrastructure via an outdoor low-power wide-area network (LP WAN), providing high scalability and connection density suitable for dense urban use cases. We assume both indoor OWC and outdoor LP WAN parts of the mMTC system use slotted ALOHA as a random access mechanism. The main contribution of this paper is in derivation of expressions for the packet loss rate, which provide insights into the considered system design as a function of the indoor OWC and outdoor LP WAN system parameters.