Light and RF dual connectivity for the next generation cellular systems

Abstract

Dual connectivity in long-term evolution (LTE) networks allows users to aggregate radio-frequency (RF) resources simultaneously from at least two different nodes, i.e., master eN-ode B (MeNB) and secondary eNode B (SeNB). Dual connectivity can significantly increase the per-user throughput and enhance mobility robustness. Furthermore, visible light communications (VLC) systems have recently attracted a considerable interest for indoor wireless communications. In this paper, we propose a system of which the RF spectrum is aggregated by the visible light (VL) spectrum in order to get the benefits of both spectra in cellular systems. Simulation results show that high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) values of VLC system can enhance the average per-user throughput. The throughput is increased significantly, more than the double when aggregating two blocks of spectra, one block is from the VL spectrum and the other block from RF spectrum. Furthermore, we examine VLC illumination functionality, which is required for the proposed system model. We demonstrate that the illumination is within the standard 2001000 lx illumination criteria.