An enhanced whale optimization algorithm with opposition-based learning for LEDs placement in indoor VLC systems

Visible Light Communication (VLC) is a new technology that has attracted lately much interest from researchers and academics. It allows communication between users using photo-detectors (PDs) as receivers and light emitting diodes (LEDs) as transmitters. The deployment of LEDs in indoor VLC Systems is an important issue that affects the coverage of the network. In this article, we propose an improved version of Whale Optimization Algorithm, named EWOA, to resolve the LEDs placement problem in indoor visible light communication (VLC) systems. The EWOA is based on the integration of chaotic map concept and Opposition based learning method (OBL) into the standard WOA to improve its optimization performance. By taking into account the user throughput and coverage metrics while employing several produced instances and evaluating results against some meta-heuristics, the usefulness of EWOA was confirmed. The meta-heuristics that we used in the comparison are WOA, (MRFO) Manta Ray Foraging Optimizer, (CHIO) Herd immunity coronavirus optimizer, (MPA) Marine Predator Algorithm, (BA) Bat Algorithm, and (PSO) Particle Swarm Optimizer. The results showed that EWOA is more effective in finding optimal LEDs positions.