End-to-end performance analysis of hybrid VLC-RF system using decode and forward relay in E-health medical applications

Abstract

In this work, we propose a dual hop hybrid visible light communication-radio frequency (VLC-RF) communication system which may be utilised to provide a good connectivity between hospital and some distant laboratory to communicate patient's information in no time. In this system, the patient's information is transmitted from patient's room in the form of optical signal via VLC link to a decode and forward (DF) relay node. The relay node is an optical transceiver mounted on the ceiling of the room. The relay node receives this optical signal, decodes it and convert it to corresponding RF signal and then transmits it via RF link to a distant laboratory. We first derive the statistical expressions of cumulative distribution function (CDF) and probability distribution function (PDF) of the end-to-end signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the system. Then, we utilize above mentioned statistical expressions to obtain closed form analytical expressions for outage probability and average bit error rate of the hybrid VLC-RF communication system. Further, the end-to-end ergodic capacity of the hybrid system is also investigated in terms of Meijer's G-function. In the end, we investigate the effect of various parameters on the system performance through numerical simulations.