Indoor Visible Light Communication System Research Articles

Experimental validation of the appropriate channel model for an indoor Visible Light Communication system

Visible light communication (VLC) is a technology with significant potential to revolutionize indoor communication performance and satisfy the demands of fifth-generation (5G) and beyond technologies. To achieve an efficient VLC system that delivers optimal performance and coverage, it is imperative to create a reliable channel model. As a result, this research is centered around the evaluation of existing channel models for planning the VLC network coverage within indoor environments. The primary focus of this study is to enforce three types of channel models, Line of Sight (LoS), Nakagawa’s first reflection model, and the Spherical model through MATLAB simulations and obtain simulation results by varying the distance parameter. Furthermore, this research intends to implement a physical prototype representing a real-world scenario, and thereby determine the nearest channel model that aligns with the physical measurements obtained from the physical prototype.

A Novel 4 × 1 MISO-VLC System with FBMC-OQAM Downlink Signals

A novel visible-light communication (VLC) system with 4 × 1 multi-input–single-output (MISO) channels is designed. In the system, the filter bank multicarrier (FBMC) and offset quadrature amplitude modulation (OQAM) techniques are used to generate downlink signals. The principles and implementation methods are proposed and analyzed, and the light intensity and received light power distribution of four LED emitters are discussed. The results demonstrate that it not only satisfies the requirements of indoor information access but also provides daily lighting. The used FBMC-OQAM signals exhibit better reception performance than orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals. The system used has a lower bit error rate (BER) and larger access bandwidth compared to a 1 × 1 single-input–single-output (SISO) system. It has the potential for application advantages in future indoor VLC system applications.

Photodetector with a metalens packaging module for visible light communication based on RGBY illumination LED light source

A novel, to the best of our knowledge, photodetector with a metalens packaging module used as the visible light communication (VLC) receiver is proposed and designed. An LED consisting of red, green, blue, and yellow chips (RGBY-LED) is adopted as the transmitter for intensity modulation direct detection VLC systems. A metalens array with a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.707 used as a polarization-insensitive planar lens of the VLC system receiver is designed at wavelengths of 457, 523, 592, and 623 nm corresponding to blue, green, yellow, and red for high efficiency. Compared with a traditional Fresnel lens positive-intrinsic-negative (PIN) photodetector module as the VLC receiver, the introduction of a metalens module can decrease the form factor of the VLC receiver module and, in particular, it is much thinner. The combination of the multi-color LED transmitter and photodetector metalens packaging module receiver can increase the modulation bandwidth due to four different wavelengths used for the VLC system. Finite-difference time domain (FDTD) simulations are performed to validate the performance of the photodetector with a metalens module. It is revealed that the corresponding efficiencies of 57.5%, 55.4%, 57%, and 56.3% were achieved at wavelengths of 623, 592, 523, and 457 nm, respectively, based on a metalens array with a 0.707 NA and 2.5 µm radius of the active area of the photodetector. It is a promising technology for indoor VLC systems such as those for smart phones and other Internet of Things devices due to the need for compact packaging for the receiver.

Optimizing SNR for indoor visible light communication by using TLBO algorithm

This article explores the selection of Communication Light-Emitting Diodes (C-LEDs) in a multiuser indoor visible light communication system. It is aimed to obtain uninterrupted and quality communication by selecting appropriate communication LEDs depending on the location of the users. In indoor visible light communication, the data from a group of C-LEDs reach the receiver through multiple transmission paths directly or as a result of reflections. Inter-symbol interference occurs due to these multiple transmission paths. As a result, the signal-to-noise ratio and the communication quality decrease. In this study, to guarantee a low bit error rate and high enough signal-to-noise ratio values for all users, a Teaching-Learning Based Optimization algorithm based on a valid rate threshold was used for selecting communication LEDs for the first time. The simulation results showed that the Teaching-Learning Based Optimization algorithm is suitable to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. Also, the time required to select the communication LEDs was shortened by determining the appropriate valid rate threshold value. When the Teaching-Learning Based Optimization algorithm was compared with other metaheuristic optimization algorithms used in the literature, it was seen that a better signal-to-noise ratio was obtained with lower iteration and population number.

Design of Indoor Visible Light Communication PAM4 System

Four-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4) can transmit more information in the same symbol interval, effectively improving the information transmission rate and frequency band utilization of visible light communication (VLC). This paper proposes a method for encoding and decoding the PAM4 signal based on FPGA. The PAM4 signal is studied and analyzed under different channel noise models. The research results show that the bit error rate (BER) performance of the PAM4 signal is the best under the additive noise model. The influence of the multiplicative noise on the BER of the PAM4 signal is much greater than that of the additive noise. The BER performance of the PAM4 signal depends on the variance of the noise data. The greater the variance, the worse the BER performance. At the same time, an indoor VLC system based on PAM4 is designed. The simulation results verify that the system scheme is feasible and provides a way to further realize high-speed signal transmission.

An approach to ensure joint illumination & communication performance of a forward error corrected indoor visible light communication (VLC) system in presence of ambient light interference

Abstract In recent time of looming radio frequency (RF) spectrum crisis, visible light communication using lighting infrastructure emerged as a potential alternative at an indoor environment. This paper addresses the setback associated with ambient light interference in an indoor Visible Light Communication (VLC) system to ensure joint communication and illumination performance inside an office room. A novel VLC architecture with suitable white light emitting diode (WLED) luminaire arrangement is presented to minimize the dispersion of signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) across the room. Luminaires are categorized in two groups viz. data transmitting illuminants and illuminants for lighting purpose. The first group is dedicated to transmit data as well as serves the purpose of illumination. The other set creates only ambient illumination to achieve quality lighting attributes. The proposed forward error corrected receiver configuration discards the ambient light noise originated by the illuminants that serve the ambient illumination. Tail biting convolutional encoder and viterbi decoder are used at the encoding section of the transmitter and decoding section of the receiver respectively to improve bit error rate. Results obtained through MATLAB simulation shows better average bit error rate (BER) in the order of 10−8 measured at uniformly distributed 25 grid points over the working plane. At the same time achieved average horizontal illuminance with good uniformity comply with ISO recommendation.

Inkjet-printed high-performance and mechanically flexible organic photodiodes for optical wireless communication

Emerging areas such as the Internet of Things (IoT), wearable and wireless sensor networks require the implementation of optoelectronic devices that are cost-efficient, high-performing and capable of conforming to different surfaces. Organic semiconductors and their deposition via digital printing techniques have opened up new possibilities for optical devices that are particularly suitable for these innovative fields of application. In this work, we present the fabrication and characterization of high-performance organic photodiodes (OPDs) and their use as an optical receiver in an indoor visible light communication (VLC) system. We investigate and compare different device architectures including spin-coated, partially-printed, and fully-printed OPDs. The presented devices exhibited state-of-the-art performance and reached faster detection speeds than any other OPD previously reported as organic receivers in VLC systems. Finally, our results demonstrate that the high-performance of the fabricated OPDs can be maintained in the VLC system even after the fabrication method is transferred to a fully-inkjet-printed process deposited on a mechanically flexible substrate. A comparison between rigid and flexible samples shows absolute differences of only 0.2 b s−1 Hz−1 and 2.9 Mb s−1 for the spectral efficiency and the data rate, respectively.

Impact of Time-Varying Dynamic Human Blockages on Indoor Visible Light Communication System

Impact of Time-Varying Dynamic Human Blockages on Indoor Visible Light Communication System

Method for evaluation of the optical uniformity distribution in the white LEDs-based visible light communication applications

The uniformity characteristic of emitted radiation in VLC applications is a factor that can affect the efficiency of a detector and the overall efficiency of the VLC system. In this paper, we theoretically investigate the optical uniformity characteristic of using LEDs in VLC applications in terms of the parameter of the emission angle of LEDs and the spatial distribution of LEDs. The result indicates that the optical uniformity can be controlled at a high level by controlling the emission angle of the LED or distributing the LEDs in the room's space. Full Text: PDF References E.-F. Schubert, J.-K. Kim, "Solid-State Light Sources Getting Smart", Science 308, 1274 (2005). CrossRef N. Narendran, Y. Gu, "Life of LED-based white light sources", J. Display Technol. 1, 167 (2005). CrossRef E. Schubert, Light-Emitting Diodes (Cambridge, Cambridge Univ. Press 2006). CrossRef C.C. Sun, Q.K. Nguyen, T.X. Lee, S.K. Lin, C.S. Wu, T.H. Yang, Y.W. Yu, "Active thermal-fuse for stopping blue light leakage of white light-emitting diodes driven by constant current", Sci. Reports 12, 12433 (2022). CrossRef Z. Ghassemlooy, W. Popoola, S. Rajbhandari. Optical Wireless Communications System and Channel Modelling with MATLAB (Florida, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2013). CrossRef A. Burton, H. Le Minh, Z. Ghasemlooy, S. Rajbhandari, "A study of LED lumination uniformity with mobility for visible light communications", IEEE 2012 Int. Workshop on Opt. Wireless Comm. (IWOW), Pisa, Italy, 2012. CrossRef M.S.M. Gismalla, M.F.L. Abdullah, M.I. Niass, B. Das, W.A. Mabrouk. "Effect of optical attocells deployment on the RMSD spread in indoor visible light communication systems", Int. J. Commun Syst. e4349 (2020). CrossRef C. Wang, J. Wang, J. Zhang, J. Wang, H. Du, J. Wang, "Research on uniform illumination distribution of indoor visible light communication", Proc. SPIE 12062, AOPC 2021: Optoelectronics and Nanophotonics (2021). CrossRef M.V. Bhalerao, M. Sumathi, S.S. Sonavane. "Line of sight model for visible light communication using Lambertian radiation pattern of LED", Int. J. Comm. Systems (2016). CrossRef J.F. Zang, Y. Piao. "Research on visible light communication system based on white LEDs", Proc. SPIE 10255, (2016). CrossRef M. Oliveira, F.C.B. Tosta, D.E.F. Guillen, P.P. Monteiro, A.A.P. Poh, "Theoretical and Experimental Analysis of LED Lamp for Visible Light Communications", Wireless Personal Communications 125, 3461(2022). CrossRef J.P. Ding, C. Lin, J.T. Wang, H. Yang, "Effects of Optical Beams on MIMO Visible Light Communication Channel Characteristics", Sensors 22, 216 (2022). CrossRef X. Zhang , N. Zhao, F. Al-Turjman, M.B. Khan, X. Yang. "An Optimization of the Signal-to-Noise Ratio Distribution of an Indoor Visible Light Communication System Based on the Conventional Layout Model", Sustainability 12, 9006 (2020). CrossRef A. Kaewpukdee, P. Uthansakul, "Characteristic of Line-of-Sight in Infrastructure-to-Vehicle Visible Light Communication Using MIMO Technique", Materials Continua 74, 1026 (2023). CrossRef

Design of the Light Source Layout Optimization Strategy Based on Region Partition and Pre-Bias Compensation for Indoor Visible Light Communication Systems

Optimization of the light source layout is an important issue for indoor visible light communication systems, as it affects the received optical power distribution and user perception. In this paper, we propose a local optimization strategy for the light source layout that balances optimization effectiveness with optimization efficiency. First, we divide the optimization region into multiple sub-regions with different sizes and optimization priorities, where the sizes and optimization priorities of the individual sub-regions are determined based on the effect minimization principle among the sub-regions. We then calculate the pre-bias factor based on the equivalent mapping, which can compensate for the effect of the light sources in the latter optimized sub-region on the source layout optimization in the current sub-region. Finally, we search for the coordinate of a single light source for each sub-region using the variance of the squared distance between the projection of the light source on the receiving plane and the received point as a fitness function. Simulation results show that the proposed optimization strategy performs well when the vertical distance between the ceiling and the receiving plane is not less than 2.85 m.

Enhanced performance of an indoor non-line-of-sight VLC system utilizing a multi-pixel photon counter and interleaved single-carrier FDM scheme

A non-line-of-sight (NLOS) visible light communication (VLC) system, utilizing a multi-pixel photon counter (MPPC) as the detector and interleaved single-carrier frequency division multiplexing (I-SC-FDM) scheme, was first proposed and experimentally investigated in this work. Specifically, the I-SC-FDM scheme exhibits a significantly lower peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) than the original orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and widely used discrete Fourier transform spread (DFTs)-OFDM schemes, thereby necessitating a much lower power gain, which is greatly beneficial for indoor power-sensitive VLC systems. Meanwhile, the implementation of an MPPC with high sensitivity enables the detection of faintly scattered light and thus facilitates the possibility of omnidirectional optical transmission based on indoor NLOS links. Following this, an MPPC-based omnidirectional VLC system was developed and successfully achieved a net data rate up to 18 Mbps in a 3.6 m × 3 m × 3 m room, with a joint deployment of the I-SC-FDM scheme and hybrid time-frequency domain equalization (TFD-EQ) strategy. Such results can be viewed as an expansion of indoor VLC systems beyond line-of-sight (LOS) links and serve as a reference for the practical application of Light-Fidelity (LiFi) in future optical wireless access.

Secrecy-Capacity Bounds for Visible Light Communications With Signal-Dependent Noise

In physical-layer security, secrecy capacity is an important performance metric. This work aims to determine the secrecy capacity for an indoor visible light communication system consisting of a transmitter, a legitimate receiver and an eavesdropping receiver. In such a system, both signal-independent noise and signal-dependent noise are considered. Under nonnegativity and average optical intensity constraints, lower and upper bounds on secrecy capacity are derived by the variational method, the dual expression of the secrecy capacity, and the concept of “the optimal input distribution that escapes to infinity”. By an asymptotic analysis at large optical intensity, there is a small gap between the asymptotic upper and lower bounds. Then, by adding a peak optical intensity constraint, we further analyze the exact and asymptotic secrecy-capacity bounds. For practical considerations, the effects of imperfect channel state information, multi-photodiode eavesdropper, and artificial noise on secrecy performance are also discussed. Finally, the derived secrecy-capacity bounds are verified by numerical results.

On the Performance of Intelligent Reconfigurable Surfaces for 6G Indoor Visible Light Communications Systems

Indoor visible light communication (VLC) systems have been extensively studied; however, they present some problems when the main propagation channel component, called Line-of-Sight (LoS), is partially or totally blocked. The effect of this blockage can cause degradation of the received optical signal and decrease the performance of the VLC system. Therefore, in recent years, research has focused on proposing solutions to mitigate this issue. Under this context, in this paper, we propose the use and implementation of intelligent reconfigurable surfaces (IRS) in the VLC indoor system to improve the propagation channel component produced by reflections, called non-line-of-sight (Non-LoS). Furthermore, we have analyzed and established the mathematical expressions of the channel components, including the effect of the IRS on the VLC system. These expressions have been evaluated in a simulated indoor VLC scenario in terms of the channel impulse response (CIR) and the bit error rate (BER). The findings achieved allow us to demonstrate that the use of IRS in the VLC system improves the performance of the system in terms of the parameters evaluated. These results also allow us to highlight the possible use of improvements in the VLC system for inclusion as a 6G enabling technology.

Research on Resource Allocation Strategy of Indoor Visible Light Communication and Radio Frequency Systems Integrating Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access Technology

Aiming at the problem of resource allocation strategies limiting the system transmission rate in indoor visible light communication and radio frequency (VLC/RF) systems, a new resource allocation method is proposed, and orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) technology is introduced. The capacity of the communication system is effectively increased. In the VLC/RF system model based on OFDMA, the Lyapunov optimization method is used to transform the time averaging problem into a series of single-slot online problems to reduce its computational complexity, the optimization problem is decomposed into three independent subproblems, and the Lagrange relaxation method and convex optimization theory are used to solve the subproblems to maximize the average transmission rate of the system, and the Lyapunov drift is used to ensure the stability of the system. Simulation verifies that the Lyapunov optimization algorithm does not require iteration, which improves the optimization speed to a high extent. The simulation results show that the proposed resource allocation strategy effectively balances the system queue length and transmission rate, improves the average transmission rate of the system to the greatest extent under the premise of ensuring the stability of the system, and compares with other algorithms from the aspects of system stability and transmission rate, which proves the effectiveness of the Lyapunov optimization algorithm.

Implementation of 16 QAM signal transmission over RO-VLC system using high power LEDs

Abstract White LEDs attract researchers for indoor visible light communication systems due to their good modulation characteristics, high efficiency, long lifetime, low cost, high tolerance to humidity, low power consumption, and minimal heat generation. Major challenges need to be resolved for LEDs including signal attenuation, ISI, and limited bandwidth for the proliferation of VLC systems. In this work, the challenges of signal attenuation and efficient utilization of limited bandwidth are addressed, keeping in mind the cost factor. A commercial high-power white phosphorous-coated LED with an optical preamplifier is used for a spectrally efficient 16 QAM Radio-Over-VLC link. The effect of varying the preamplifier gain on the system performance is investigated. Lower gain values limit the communication distance of the VLC system. A maximum transmission distance of 7 m considering a super-forward-error-correction (SFEC) limit of 1.863 × 10−2 could be achieved for a data rate of 0.5 Gbps. The transmission distance needs to be reduced to 6 m for a higher data rate of 0.6 Gbps with a resultant bit-error-ratio (BER) of 1.44 × 10−2 which is well within the SFEC limit. The achieved error vector magnitude (EVM), symbol error rate (SER), and Log bit-error-ratio (BER) metrics are used to characterize the VLC system performance.

Indoor Visible Light Positioning Based on Channel Estimation and Cramér–Rao Low Bound Analysis with Random Receiving Orientation of User Equipment

The accuracy of line-of-sight (LOS)-based indoor visible light positioning (VLP) depends directly on the accuracy of the received LOS power. In an actual indoor visible light communication (VLC) system, the total received power contains the LOS power and diffuse power, and the proportion of diffuse component varies significantly with the receiving orientation of the user equipment (UE). In the trilateration positioning process, this is bound to bring a very high level of inaccuracy for at least one or two of them when determining the distance between the positioned LED and UE. To solve this problem, we employed channel estimation and Parseval’s theorem to remove the diffuse component from the total received power. The simulation results show that the higher the channel estimation accuracy, the smaller the discrepancy between the estimated and actual LOS power, and the greater the localization accuracy. At the same channel estimation accuracy, the comparison results demonstrate that the localization performance of the proposed method is higher than LLS-1, in which the total received power is directly adopted to estimate the distance. The localization performance of LLS-2 deteriorates significantly compared to the proposed method. This result indicates that the receiving orientation cannot be neglected during the distance estimation process even though the estimated accuracy of LOS power is high. Deriving the Cramér–Rao low bound (CRLB) for LOS-based indoor VLP with receiving orientation, we compared the localization performance for the proposed method with LLS-1, LLS-2, and the CRLB at various signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). The results show that the localization error of all the received positions in the room can reach the CRLB at approximately 25 dB. However, localization errors based on LLS-1 and LLS-2 cannot achieve the theoretical CRLB even at a high SNR.

Shadow Effect of Human Obstacles on Indoor Visible Light Communication System with Multiple Light Sources

When the direct visible-light channel is affected by people walking or other obstacles, the shadow effect formed in the receiver space affects communication performance and can even lead to communication interruption. In this paper, two numerical methods for calculating the shadow area of the human body were proposed for an indoor multi-light communication system. The influence of shadows on system performance was analyzed using the mean square errors of illuminance and signal-to-noise ratio, as well as the interrupt probability, as parameters. The results showed that shadows had a great influence on the performance of the visible-light communication system. When the number of light sources was fixed, the shadow effect could be effectively reduced by optimizing the layout of the light sources. These research results can provide a theoretical basis for improving the stability of visible-light communication systems.

Enhanced secrecy outage probability for multiple‐input single‐output‐VLC systems through optical beamforming and improved light emitting diodes deployment

AbstractThe authors propose to arrange the light emitting diodes (LEDs) on the ceiling for an indoor visible light communication system in order to minimise the secrecy outage probability (SOP) at the location of the legitimate user (LU). More precisely, by deriving the secrecy capacity for a multiple‐input single‐output‐VLC system, we evaluate the SOP at the LU's location which is used as the appropriate metric to determine the position of the LEDs on the ceiling. To mitigate the effect of the eavesdropper, we derive the optimal beamforming coefficients which are used at the transmitter LED array with the aim of maximising the signal‐to‐noise ratio at the LU. Simulation results show that for a SOP of 10−4, the proposed SOP‐based LED arrangement with optimal beamforming offers up to 3 dB gain in transmit power compared to the classical uniform LED arrangement with sub‐optimal zero‐forcing beamforming. Moreover, they show that by using the proposed method, the SOP is kept below a desired threshold, over a wider area inside the indoor environment compared to classical methods.

QoS-aware secure transmission design for VLC with semi-grant-free NOMA scheme.

This work aims to enhance the physical layer security (PLS) of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) aided indoor visible light communication (VLC) system with semi-grant-free (SGF) transmission scheme, in which a grant-free (GF) user shares the same resource block with a grant-based (GB) user whose quality of service (QoS) must be strictly guaranteed. Besides, the GF user is also provided with an acceptable QoS experience, which is closely aligned with the practical application. Both active and passive eavesdropping attacks are discussed in this work, where users' random distributions are taken into account. Specifically, to maximize the secrecy rate of the GB user in the presence of an active eavesdropper, the optimal power allocation policy is obtained in exact closed-form and the user fairness is then assessed by Jain's fairness index. Moreover, the secrecy outage performance of the GB user is analyzed in the presence of the passive eavesdropping attack. Both exact and asymptotic theoretical expressions for the secrecy outage probability (SOP) of the GB user are derived, respectively. Furthermore, the effective secrecy throughput (EST) is investigated on the basis of the derived SOP expression. Through simulations, it is found that the PLS of this VLC system can be significantly improved by the proposed optimal power allocation scheme. The radius of the protected zone, the outage target rate for the GF user, and the secrecy target rate for the GB user would have pronounced impacts on the PLS and user fairness performance of this SGF-NOMA assisted indoor VLC system. The maximum EST will increase with the increasing transmit power and it is hardly influenced by the target rate for the GF user. This work will benefit the design of indoor VLC system.

Improved LED arrangement through outage probability minimization in LiFi communication systems

AbstractIn this paper, an improved method to arrange the light emitting diodes (LED) on the ceiling for an indoor visible light communication (VLC) system is proposed. More precisely, a LiFi‐based connection is considered where several LEDs are placed on the ceiling of an office and communicate with several receiver (user) located randomly within the room area. It is proposed to find the optimal location of the LEDs by minimizing the outage probability at the user's location. Both cases of static and mobile users are addressed. First, the closed‐form expression for the outage probability at the user's location is derived. Then, by minimizing the average outage probability, the optimal location of the LEDs is found. The numerical results show that the proposed LED arrangement outperforms the classically used uniform LED arrangement in terms of average outage probability at the receiver and reduces the necessary signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) to achieve a target average outage probability by about 3 and 2.2 dB for mobile and static users, respectively. They also show that the performance superiority of the proposed method over classical arrangement remains valid even under large estimation errors.