A Wavelength-Dependent Visible Light Communication Channel Model for Underground Environments and Its Performance Using a Color-Shift Keying Modulation Scheme

Abstract

Reliable wireless communications are crucial for ensuring workers’ safety in underground tunnels and mines. Visible light communications (VLC) have been proposed as auxiliary systems for short-range wireless communications in underground environments due to their seamless availability, immunity to electromagnetic interference, and illumination capabilities. Although multiple VLC channel models have been proposed for underground mines (UM) so far, none of these models have considered the wavelength dependence of the underground mining VLC channel (UM-VLC). In this paper, we propose a single-input, single-output (SISO), wavelength-dependent UM-VLC channel model considering the wavelength dependence of the light source, reflections, light scattering, and the attenuation due to dust and the photodetector. Since wavelength dependence allows us to model VLC systems more accurately with color-based modulation, such as color-shift keying (CSK), we also propose a wavelength-dependent CSK-based UM-VLC channel model. We define a simulation scenario in an underground mine roadway and calculate the received power, channel impulse response (CIR), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference ratio (SIR), root mean square (RMS) delay, and bit error rate (BER). For comparison, we also calculate these parameters for a monochromatic state-of-the-art UM-VLC channel and use it as a reference channel. We find that the inclusion of wavelength-dependency in CSK-based UM-VLC systems plays a significant role in their performance, introducing color distortion that the color calibration algorithm defined in the IEEE 802.15.7 VLC standard finds harder to revert than the linear color distortion induced by monochromatic CSK channels.