On the time–frequency-based two-light-emitting diode positioning in visible light communication

Abstract

Conventional visible light positioning (VLP) schemes usually require at least three light sources, making positioning accuracy sensitive to shadowing, a limited number of light sources, or sparse light-emitting diode (LED) layout. We proposed a mirror-assisted VLP system, where two-LED positioning can be realized by adopting specular reflection and time–frequency combination method. The scheme is based on the concept of virtual lamps and the received signal strength algorithm. Specular reflection power from one of the virtual lamps is integrated into the effective positioning power of its corresponding real lamp to obtain increased received power and mitigate the impact of diffuse reflection. Meanwhile, the other virtual lamp is independently used as the third light source for positioning, which means that the system becomes a “pseudo” three-LED positioning system, so that positioning can be realized with only two real lamps available. The corresponding positioning accuracy evaluated numerically shows an upward trend as the distance between the receiver and mirror decreases. By reducing the distance between the transmitters and the mirror, the positioning error can be limited to ∼12.4 cm.