This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been
fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/LPT.2017.2663441, IEEE Photonics
Technology Letters
Sum Rate Maximization for VLC Systems with
Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power
Transfer
Yiran Li, Nuo Huang, Jinyuan Wang, Member, IEEE, Zhaohui Yang, and Wei Xu, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—This letter investigates the sum rate maximization
problem in a downlink visible light communication (VLC) sys-
tem with simultaneous wireless information and power transfer
(SWIPT). To solve this nonconvex sum rate maximization prob-
lem, we first transform it into an equivalent convex problem.
Then, we provide the optimal condition and propose a low-
complexity iterative algorithm, which yields the optimal solution.
Numerical results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve
good performance.
Index Terms—VLC, SWIPT, sum rate maximization.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Visible light communication (VLC) technology has been
deemed as one of the next promising technologies in net-
working, due to its distinct advantages such as unregulated
bandwidth, high security, and low cost [1]. Different from
conventional radio frequency (RF) communication, VLC can
be used for communication and illumination at the same time,
which is energy efficient.
VLC is a promising technology in short-range communi-
cation scenarios for future 5G networks [2]. However, the
performance of a VLC system is generally limited by the
energy of cellular users. To improve the system performance,
simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIP-
T) has been applied to wireless communication networks [3].
By using SWIPT, cellular users can simultaneously receive
wireless information and harvest energy. Consequently, SWIP-
T can be promising in VLC systems [4]. Although resource
allocation in wireless communications with SWIPT has been
extensively studied [5]–[7], the resource allocation schemes
in [5]–[7] cannot be applicable to VLC systems owing to the
following two unique characteristics of VLC [8]. First, since
the information is modulated as the instantaneous optical in-
tensity, the transmitted signals must be real and non-negative.
Second, the average optical intensity should be limited for the
sake of eye safety. Therefore, the above features must be taken
into account in the design of VLC systems with SWIPT.
This work was supported in part by the 973 under Grant 2013CB329204,
National Nature Science Foundation of China under Grant 61471114 and
61571118, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, the
open research fund of National Mobile Communications Research Laboratory,
Southeast University (2017D06), NUPTSF (NY216009), Program Sponsored
for Scientific Innovation Research of College Graduate in Jiangsu Province
under Grant KYLX15 0074.
Y. Li is with the Department of Physics, Southeast University, Nanjing
210096, China. (Email:liyiran@seu.edu.cn).
N. Huang, Z. Yang and W. Xu are with the National Mobile Communi-
cations Research Laboratory, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.
(Email:{huangnuo, yangzhaohui, wxu}@seu.edu.cn).
J. Wang is with the Peter Grünberg Research Center, Nanjing University of
Posts and Telecommunications, and also with the National Mobile Commu-
nications Research Laboratory, Southeast University, Nanjing 210003, China.
(Email: jywang@njupt.edu.cn).
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In this letter, we formulate the sum rate maximization prob-
lem in a downlink VLC system with SWIPT. We consider the
unique characteristics of the VLC system as new constraints.
Although the sum rate maximization problem is nonconvex,
the problem can be transformed into an equivalent convex one.
Then, an iterative resource allocation, DC-offset distribution
and power control algorithm with low complexity is proposed
to obtain the optimal solution. Numerical results show that the
proposed algorithm yields good performance.
II. S YSTEM M ODEL
Consider a downlink VLC system with one LED trans-
mitter and K users. The set of K users is denoted by
K = {1, · · · , K}. In this system, the LED transmitter serves
multiple users through time division multiple access (TDMA)
scheme, i.e., the transmitter serves different users in different
time intervals. During the serving time for user k, the trans-
mitted signal of the LED transmitter is
√
xk = pk sk + ak , (1)
where pk , sk and ak are the allocated power, message and
DC-offset of the data transmission for user k, respectively.
Assuming that an N -ary pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) is
adopted for all users, we assume that sk ∈ [−δ, δ], E(sk ) = 0
and E(s2k ) = 1 as in [9], where δ is a coefficient determined by
modulation order N , ∀k ∈ K. To guarantee that the transmitted
signal xk is non-negative, we have
√
δ pk ≤ ak . (2)
The average optical power of xk is given by E(xk ) =
√
E( pk sk + ak ) = ak . Due to the luminous ability of LED
device and eye safety, the value of DC-offset ak should be
limited, i.e.,
ak ≤ I, (3)
where I is the average optical power limit.
LOS propagation paths are considered as in [10]. After
removing the constant DC-offset, the received signal at user
k can be given by
√
yk = gk pk sk + nk , (4)
√
where gk is the channel gain between LED transmitter and
user k, and nk is a zero-mean Gaussian noise with variance
σ 2 . Denoting the time sharing factor of user k by mk , the
lower bound to rate of user k can be given by [11], [12]
mk ( ḡk pk )
rk = log 1 + 2 , (5)
2 σ
2gk
where ḡk = πeδ 2.
In this letter, we adopt the energy harvesting strategy for
VLC systems with SWIPT. Due to the practical limitation that
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/LPT.2017.2663441, IEEE Photonics
Technology Letters

circuits for harvesting energy from radio signals are not yet following problem:
able to decode the carried information directly [5]–[7], user ∑ mk ( )
ḡk qk
k only receives information within the transmission time for max log 1 + 2 (9a)
m ,bb,qq 2 σ mk
itself, while user k harvests the wireless energy within the the k∈K
∑
transmission time for other users. Assume that the conversion s.t. ζ (ql + bl )gk ≥ Ek , ∀k ∈ K (9b)
efficiency of the energy harvesting process is denoted by l∈K\{k}
ζ ∈ (0, 1]. Since E(sl ) = 0 and E(s2l ) = 1 [9], the energy ∑
mk ≤ 1, (9c)
harvested by user k during the transmission time for user l
k∈K
(l ̸= k) is ζml (pl + a2l )gk . Hence, the total energy harvested
by user k is δ 2 qk ≤ bk , ∀k ∈ K (9d)
∑
K
∑ (qk + bk ) ≤ Pmax (9e)
ek = ζ ml (pl + a2l )gk . (6) k=1
l∈K\{k}
bk ≤ I 2 mk , ∀k ∈ K (9f)
For the sake of energy saving, the total electrical power of mk ≥ 0, qk ≥ 0, bk ≥ 0, ∀k ∈ K. (9g)
the system should be limited, i.e.,
With
( ) ( )
∑ mk ḡk qk log 1 + ḡσk q2k x
K
( ) lim log 1 + 2 = lim
mk pk + a2k ≤ Pmax . (7) mk →0+ 2 σ mk x→+∞ 2x
( ḡk qk )
k=1 log σ2 + log x
= lim = 0,
x→+∞ 2x
( )
we define m2k log 1 + σḡ2km qk
k
= 0 for mk = 0.
Problem (9) can be proven to be convex as follows. Ac-
III. P ROBLEM F ORMULATION AND O PTIMAL S OLUTION
cording to [13, Page 89], the perspective of u(x) is the
function v(x, t) defined by v(x, t) = tu(x/t), dom v =
A. Problem Formulation {(x, t)|x/t ∈ dom u, t > 0}. If u(x) is a concave function,
then so is( its perspective) function v(x, t) [13, Page 89].
In this letter, our goal is to maximize the sum rate of all ḡk qk
Since log( 1 + σ 2) is concave with respect to (w.r.t.) qk ,
users, subject to the minimum rate requirements, minimum ḡk qk
mk log 1 + σ2 mk is concave w.r.t. (mk , qk ). Owing to that
harvested energy requirements, and power constraints. Math-
(9a) is a nonnegative weighted sum of concave functions,
ematically, the optimization problem can be formulated as
we can find that the objective function of problem (9) is
( concave w.r.t. (mm, q ) [13, Page 79]. Since the constraints of (9)
∑ mk ḡk pk ) are linear, problem (9) is convex and we have the following
max log 1 + 2 (8a)
a,p
m ,a p 2 σ theorem.
k∈K
∑ Theorem m∑∗ ∗ ∗
, b , q ) of problem (9) sat-
s.t. ζ ml (pl + a2l )gk ≥ Ek , ∀k ∈ K (8b) ∑ 1: The ∗
optimal (m
K ∗ ∗
isfies k∈K m k = 1, and k=1 (pk + bk ) = Pmax if
l∈K\{k} ∗ 2 ∗
∑ b ̸= I m . ( )
mk ≤ 1, (8c) Proof: Using rk = m2k log 1 + σḡ2km qk
, we have
k
k∈K
√ ( )
δ pk ≤ ak , ∀k ∈ K (8d) ∂rk 1 ḡk qk ḡk qk
= log 1 + 2 − . (11)
∑
K
( ) ∂mk 2 σ mk 2ḡk qk + 2σ 2 mk
mk pk + a2k ≤ Pmax (8e)
Define function f (x) = log(x) − 1 + x1 , x ≥ 1. Since f ′ (x) =
k=1
x2 ≥ 0 for x ≥ 1, we have ∂mk = 2 f (1+ σ 2 mk ) ≥ 2 f (1) =
x−1 ∂rk 1 ḡk qk 1
mk ≥ 0, pk ≥ 0, 0 ≤ ak ≤ I, ∀k ∈ K (8f)
0. Therefore, rk∑ is an increasing function for mk ≥ 0.
Assume that k∈K m∗k < 1. Then, the objective function
∗
where m = (m1 , · · · , mK )T is the resource allocation vector, (9a) can∑ be further improved by increasing mk . Thus, we
a = (a1 , · · · , aK )T is the DC-offset distribution vector, p = obtain k∈K m∗k = 1 by contradiction.
∑K
(p1 , · · · , pK )T is the power control vector, Ek represents the Assume that k=1 (qk ∗ + b∗k ) < Pmax and b ∗ ̸= I 2m ∗ . To
minimum harvested energy of user k, (8c) is the time sharing satisfy constraints (9f), we can find that there exists one user k
constraint because the channel is utilized by one user at some such that b∗k < I 2 m∗k . To satisfy constraints (9d), we consider
instance. the following two cases.
Since objective function (8a) is not concave and constraints 1) If δ 2 qk∗ < b∗k , the objective function (9a) can be further
(8b) are not convex, problem (8) is nonconvex. Let us denote improved by increasing qk∗ .
bk = mk a2k , qk = mk pk , ∀k ∈ K, b = (b1 , · · · , bK )T , and 2) If δ 2 qk∗ = b∗k , we can increase qk∗ to qk′ = qk∗ + ϵ, ϵ > 0.
q = (q1 , · · · , qK )T . Then, problem (8) is equivalent to the Then, we set b′k = δ 2 (qk∗ +ϵ). To satisfy (9e) and (9f), we

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Technology Letters

∑
choose ϵ > 0 such that qk′ +b′k + l∈K\{k} (ql ∗ + b∗l ) ≤ constant χ > 0, and the objective function of problem (9a)
Pmax and δ 2 (qk∗ + ϵ) ≤ I 2 m∗k . With new pair (qk′ , b′k ), can be modified as,
∑ mk ( ) ∑
we can obtain a new solution that yields higher objective ḡk qk
value of problem (9) than solution (m m∗ , b ∗ , q ∗ ). max log 1 + 2 +χ log(1 + bk ) (16)
∑K m ,bb,qq 2 σ mk
k∈K k∈K
Thus, we have k=1 (pk ∗ + b∗k ) = Pmax if b ∗ ̸= I 2m ∗ by
contradiction. Obviously, the modified problem (9) with new objective func-
tion (16) is also a convex problem. Besides, if the value
B. Optimal Resource Allocation, DC-offset Distribution and
of χ is as small as possible, the optimal solution of the
Power Control Algorithm
modified problem approximately equals to the optimal solution
Since problem (9) is convex, the optimal solution can be of original problem (9). By solving the KKT conditions of the
obtained by the typical interior point method [13]. However, modified problem, we can obtain
the complexity of solving problem (9) by using the standard
[ ]Pmax
interior point method is high. In the following, we propose a 
∑
χ 
low-complexity iterative method with two steps to obtain the bk = −1  , ∀k ∈ K.
µ+νk − l∈K\{k} ζgl αl −λk 
optimal solution of problem (9). Note that the simplex method 0
[13] can be applied to verify the feasibility of problem (9) (17)
Using the dual method, we need to update dual variables
before conducting the proposed method.
with fixed optimization variables. From [14], we exploit the
Denoting α = (α1 , · · · , αK )T , γ, λ = (λ1 , · · · , λK )T ,
gradient based method. Then, the new value of the dual
µ, ν = (ν1 , · · · , νK )T as the non-negative dual variables
variables can be updated by
associated with corresponding constraints of problem (9), the
Lagrangian function of problem (9) can(be written by   +
∑ mk ) ∑
L(mm, b , q , α , γ, λ , µ, ν ) =
ḡk qk
log 1 + 2 αk (t + 1) = αk (t) − θ(t)ζ (ql +bl )gk −Ek , (18)
2 σ mk l∈K\{k}
k∈K
  ( ) [ ( )]+
∑K ∑ ∑ ∑
+ αk ζ (ql + bl )gk − Ek  + γ 1 − mk γ(t + 1) = γ(t) − θ(t) 1 − mk , (19)
k=1 k∈K k∈K
l∈K\{k}
( ) [ ( )]+
∑
K
( ) ∑
K λk (t + 1) = λk (t) − θ(t) bk − δ 2 qk , (20)
+ λk bk − δ 2 qk + µ Pmax − (qk + bk ) [ ( )]+
∑ K
k=1 k=1 µ(t + 1) = µ(t) − θ(t) Pmax − (qk + bk ) , (21)
∑K
( ) k=1
+ νk I 2 mk − bk . [ ( )]+
k=1
νk (t + 1) = νk (t) − θ(t) I 2 mk − bk , (22)
The optimal solution should satisfy the following Karush- where θ(t) > 0 is a dynamically chosen stepsize sequence,
Kuhn-Tucker (
(KKT) conditions
) [13]. and [x]+ = max{x, 0}. A typical selection of θ(t) can be
∂L 1 ḡk qk ḡk qk found in [14, Page 295]. Since problem (9) is convex w.r.t.
= log 1+ 2 − −γ +I 2 νk = 0(12)
∂mk 2 σ mk 2σ 2 mk +2ḡk qk m, q , b ), problem (9) is also convex w.r.t. (m
(m m, b ) with given q .
∂L ∑ Thus, by iteratively optimizing the primal variables (m m, b ) and
= ζgl αl + λk − µ − νk = 0 (13)
∂bk dual variables (α α, γ, λ , µ, ν ), we can obtain the optimal (m m, b )
l∈K\{k}
∑ with given q [14].
∂L ḡk mk
= 2 + ζgl αl − δ 2 λk − µ = 0 (14) In the second step, we obtain the optimal q with fixed (m m,
∂qk 2σ mk + 2ḡk qk b ) that are obtained from the first step. From (14), we have
l∈K\{k}
[ ]Pmax
σ 2 mk 
According to (12), (13) and (14), it is difficult to obtain the
mk
closed-form expressions of (m m, b , q ) with given dual variables qk = ∑ −  , ∀k ∈ K.
α, γ, λ , µ, ν ). To use the dual method, we solve problem (9)
(α 2δ 2 λk +2µ−2 l∈K\{k} ζgl αl ḡk 
0
with two steps by iteratively optimizing (m m, b ) with fixed q and (23)
updating q with given (m m, b ). As long as both optimizing (m m, According to (23), we find that dual variables (α α, λ , µ) are
b ) and updating q steps aim to increase the objective function needed to calculate q . After obtaining the primary variable q
(9a), the overall algorithm is guaranteed to converge. from (23), we exploit the gradient based method, and dual
In the first step, we optimize (m m, b ) with fixed q . Denote variables (α α, λ , µ) can be updated from (18), (20) and (21).
the inverse function of f (x) = log(x) − 1 + x1 by f −1 (x). Since problem (9) is convex with fixed m and b , iteratively
From (12), we have optimizing primary variable q and dual variables (α α, λ , µ)
1 yields the optimal q .
ḡk qk 
mk = 2 −1  , ∀k ∈ K, (15)
σ f (2γ − 2I νk ) − σ 
2 2 By iteratively solving resource allocation and DC-offset
0 distribution (IRDP) problem with fixed power q and power
where x|ba
= min{max{x, a}, b}. Since Lagrange function is control problem with fixed resource allocation m and DC-
a linear function w.r.t bk , the optimal value of bk cannot be offset distribution b , the algorithm to solve problem (8) is
directly obtained. To solve this, we introduce a small positive named as the IRDP algorithm.

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Technology Letters

25
C. Complexity Analysis
20
Considering that the dimension of variables in problem (9)

Rate(bits/s/Hz)
15
is 3K, the complexity of solving (9) by using the interior point IRDP
ERA
method is O(K 3.5 ) [13, Page 487, 569]. For the proposed 10
EDD
5 EPC
algorithm, the major complexity lies in the computation of
0
m, b ) and q in each iteration. To compute mk based on (15)
(m 76 77 78 79 80 81
Minimum required harvested energy (µW)
with given dual variables, the complexity is O(log(1/ϵ1 )) by
Fig. 1. Sum rate versus minimum required harvested energy.
using the bisection method with accuracy ϵ1 for calculating 26
inverse function f −1 (x). According to (17), the complexity 24
IRDP

Rate(bits/s/Hz)
ERA
of obtaining bk with given dual variables is O(K). By using 22 EDD
EPC
the dual method, the total complexity of obtaining (m m, b ) 20

is O(Lmb K 2 + Lmb K log(1/ϵ1 )), where Lmb is the number 18

of iterations required by the gradient method for computing 16

m, b ). To compute qk by using (23) with given dual variables,
(m
the complexity is O(K). By using the dual method, the total
complexity of obtaining q is O(Lq K 2 ), where Lq is the num-
ber of iterations required by the gradient method for computing
q . Thus, the total complexity of the proposed algorithm is
O(LLmb K 2 + LLmb K log(1/ϵ1 ) + LLq K 2 ), where L is the
total number in outer iterations by the proposed algorithm.
Since iteration numbers L, Lmb and Lq are always smaller than
user number K, we can find that the proposed algorithm has
a lower complexity compared with the interior point method.
IV. N UMERICAL R ESULTS
In this section, we evaluate the performance of the proposed
algorithm by using Monte Carlo methods. In a VLC system
√
with 4-ary PAM, δ = 3 5 5 [9] and there are 30 users uniformly
distributed in a square area of size 80 m × 80 √ m. The
maximum optical intensity of DC-offset is I = 20 dBm, the
conversion efficiency ζ = 0.2, the noise power is σ 2 = −104
dBm, and parameter χ = 10−3 . The minimum required harvest
energy is the same for each user, i.e., E1 = · · · = EK .
We compare the proposed IRDP scheme with the following
three schemes: the equal resource allocation scheme (labeled
as ‘ERA’), where the solution is obtained by solving (9) with
additional equal resource allocation constraints, i.e., m1 =
· · · = mK = K 1
, the equal DC-offset distribution scheme
(labeled as ‘EDD’), where the solution is obtained by solving
(9) with additional DC-offset distribution constraints, i.e., b1 =
2 [6] X. Zhou, R. Zhang, and C. K. Ho, “Wireless information and power
· · · = bK = δ 1+δ Pmax
2 , and the equal power control scheme
(labeled as ‘EPC’), where the solution is obtained by solving
(9) with additional equal power control constraints, i.e., q1 =
· · · = qK = P 1+δ 2 .
max
Fig. 1 shows the sum rate comparison with different
schemes of minimum required harvested power when the
maximum electric power Pmax is 40 dBm. It can be found that
the proposed IRDP scheme always outperforms the other three
schemes, especially when the minimum required harvested
energy is low. This is because the proposed scheme joint-
ly optimizes resource allocation, DC-offset distribution and
power control. For all schemes, the sum rate decreases as the
minimum required harvested energy increases, since the power
for transforming information is smaller for larger required
harvested energy. Fig. 2 displays the sum rate comparison
with different schemes of maximum electrical power when the
minimum required harvested energy is 80µW. It is observed
that the sum rate increases with the maximum electrical
36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54
Maximum electrical power (dBm)
Fig. 2. Sum rate versus maximal electrical power.
power. Besides, we also see that the proposed IRDP always
outperforms the other three schemes.
V. C ONCLUSION
In this letter, we have investigated the sum rate maxi-
mization problem in a downlink VLC system with SWIPT.
Through an appropriate variable transformation, we transform
the original nonconvex problem into an equivalent convex
problem. Then, we provide the optimal condition and propose
an iterative algorithm with low complexity to obtain the
optimal solution. Numerical results show that the system
performance can be improved by the proposed algorithm.
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