Hybrid algorithm: A cost efficient solution for ONU placement in Fiber-Wireless (FiWi) network

•ONU placement is one of key issues in the fiber wireless network.•For ONU placement proposed hybrid algorithm considers internet and p2p traffic.•The proposed algorithm requires fewer number of ONUs than previous algorithms.•Results show that hybrid algorithm is better to deploy cost-efficient FiWi network.

Fiber-Wireless (FiWi) network is a promising access technology as it integrates the technical merits of optical and wireless access networks. FiWi provides large bandwidth and high stability of optical network and lower cost of wireless network respectively. Therefore, FiWi gives users to access broadband services in an “anywhere–anytime” way. One of the key issues in FiWi network is its deployment cost, which depends on the number of ONUs in the network. Therefore optimal placement of ONUs is desirable to design a cost effective network. In this paper, we propose an algorithm for optimal placement of ONUs. First we place an ONU in the center of each grid then we form a set of wireless routers associated with each ONU according to wireless hop number. The number of ONUs are minimized in such a way, that all the wireless routers can communicate to at least one of the ONUs. The number of ONUs in the network further reduced by using genetic algorithm. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is tested by considering Internet traffic as well as peer-to-peer (p2p) traffic in the network, which is a current need. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is better than existing algorithms in minimizing number of ONUs in the network for both types of traffics. Hence proposed algorithm offers cost effective solution to design the FiWi network.