Fiber wireless (FiWi) access network: ONU placement and reduction in average communication distance using whale optimization algorithm

Explosive growth in the field of Information and Communication Technology demands an access technology which can serve users better Internet speed in "anytime anywhere” manner. Fiber Wireless (FiWi) access technology is one of the existing technologies that fulfills the current demands of users in cost-efficient manner. Some of the important issues of the FiWi network are ONU placement and energy saving. ONU placement issue affects the deployment cost and network performance while energy saving is the need for green technology. On taking consideration of these two issues we propose a whale optimization algorithm for ONU placement for FiWi network. The proposed algorithm optimizes the position of ONUs in such a manner that all deployed wireless routers can connect to their primary ONUs with minimum possible average communication distance. Simulation is performed for varying number of wireless routers to check the worthiness of the proposed algorithm. Results show that the proposed algorithm reduces the average communication distance between ONU and its associated wireless routers hence, it may offer the best way to deploy energy efficient FiWi network.