Visible light signal strength optimization using genetic algorithm in non-line-of-sight optical wireless communication

Abstract

Visible light communication (VLC) using the light emitting diode (LED) attracts attention from researchers as a future low power optical wireless communication. VLC generally considers a line-of-sight (LOS) link, although the LOS link can be affected by the obstacles between LED transmitter and photodetector (PD) receiver in a practical scenario. In the case of non-line-of-sight (NLOS) link, it is important to find a link with maximum possible received signal strength (RSS) to ensure optimum communication quality in VLC. In this paper, we propose a novel scheme for optimizing the RSS using a meta-heuristic searching algorithm known as genetic algorithm (GA). The proposed scheme is simulated using two white light emitting diodes (LEDs) as the transmitters and a PD as the receiver. The genetic algorithm (GA) is used to calculate the maximum RSS on the NLOS link within an indoor environment. GA determines an orientation of the maximum RSS at the receiver instead of measuring the RSS for every angle. Simulation results reveal that the proposed scheme accurately estimates the orientation that produces an optimum RSS value at the receiver.