Aligning the Light for Vehicular Visible Light Communications: High Data Rate and Low-Latency Vehicular Visible Light Communications Implementing Blind Interference Alignment

Abstract

Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications are one of the most promising 6G scenarios. However, V2V communications demand high data rates and extremely low-latency requirements that are difficult to satisfy nowadays. Recently, vehicular visible light communications (V-VLC) have been proposed as a promising technology to guarantee such requirements. Multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) techniques can potentially achieve high data rates. However, when applied to V-VLC, they confront challenges such as the latency because of the need for closed-loop transmission or the correlation among optical channel responses. This article explains the use of blind interference alignment (BIA) for V-VLC based on the concept of a reconfigurable photodetector to provide linearly independent channel responses. It is shown that BIA solves the issues of MIMO techniques and may comply with the 6G V-VLC requirements. Besides, the vehicles are a convenient platform for implementing a reconfigurable photodetector. Finally, the open issues for BIA implementation in V-VLC are discussed to inspire future research.