Research on Non-Uniform Dynamic Vehicle-Mounted VLC with Receiver Spatial and Angular Diversity

Abstract

With the widespread use of Light Emitting Diode (LED) in vehicle lights and traffic lights, LED-based Visible Light Communication (VLC) has been regarded as an alternative candidate for data transmission for connected vehicles. In order to enhance the performance of non-uniform dynamic VLC, where the luminous intensity distribution is not uniform and the received optical power changes frequently with vehicle motion, we propose to integrate receiver spatial and angular diversity with VLC for connected vehicles. We take the position and the posture of the receiver into consideration since the performance of VLC varies significantly according to the spatial relationship between the receiver and the transmitter. In this paper, firstly, we present a Vehicle-to-Vehicle VLC (V2V-VLC) model and a Vehicle-to-Infrastructure VLC (V2I-VLC) model according to the spatial relationship model. Then, we present a layout scheme of receivers. In our scheme, we can not only achieve diversity gains but also obtain a forward total 180 degrees Field of View (FOV) and a backward total 180 degrees FOV respectively. Finally, we simulate and analyze the Bit Error Rate (BER) in both turning and lane change scenarios. Simulation results show that receiver spatial and angular diversity can significantly decrease the BER of VLC equipped vehicles.