10 research outputs found
Multi-user visible light communications: State-of-the-art and future directions
Visible light communications (VLC) builds upon the dual use of existing lighting infrastructure for wireless data transmission. VLC has recently gained interest as cost-effective, secure, and energy-efficient wireless access technology particularly for indoor user-dense environments. While initial studies in this area are mainly limited to single-user point-to-point links, more recent efforts have focused on multi-user VLC systems in an effort to transform VLC into a scalable and fully networked wireless technology. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive overview of multi-user VLC systems discussing the recent advances on multi-user precoding, multiple access, resource allocation, and mobility management. We further provide possible directions for future research in this emerging topic.King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia ; TÃœBÄ°TAKPublisher versio
Indoor Visible Light Communication:A Tutorial and Survey
Abstract
With the advancement of solid-state devices for lighting, illumination is on the verge of being completely restructured. This revolution comes with numerous advantages and viable opportunities that can transform the world of wireless communications for the better. Solid-state LEDs are rapidly replacing the contemporary incandescent and fluorescent lamps. In addition to their high energy efficiency, LEDs are desirable for their low heat generation, long lifespan, and their capability to switch on and off at an extremely high rate. The ability of switching between different levels of luminous intensity at such a rate has enabled the inception of a new communication technology referred to as visible light communication (VLC). With this technology, the LED lamps are additionally being used for data transmission. This paper provides a tutorial and a survey of VLC in terms of the design, development, and evaluation techniques as well as current challenges and their envisioned solutions. The focus of this paper is mainly directed towards an indoor setup. An overview of VLC, theory of illumination, system receivers, system architecture, and ongoing developments are provided. We further provide some baseline simulation results to give a technical background on the performance of VLC systems. Moreover, we provide the potential of incorporating VLC techniques in the current and upcoming technologies such as fifth-generation (5G), beyond fifth-generation (B5G) wireless communication trends including sixth-generation (6G), and intelligent reflective surfaces (IRSs) among others
A guide to wireless networking by light
The lack of wireless spectrum in the radio frequency bands has led to a rapid growth in research in wireless networking using light, known as LiFi (light fidelity). In this paper an overview of the subsystems, challenges and techniques required to achieve this is presented
Interference mitigation in LiFi networks
Due to the increasing demand for wireless data, the radio frequency (RF) spectrum has
become a very limited resource. Alternative approaches are under investigation to support
the future growth in data traffic and next-generation high-speed wireless communication
systems. Techniques such as massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), millimeter
wave (mmWave) communications and light-fidelity (LiFi) are being explored. Among
these technologies, LiFi is a novel bi-directional, high-speed and fully networked wireless
communication technology. However, inter-cell interference (ICI) can significantly restrict the
system performance of LiFi attocell networks. This thesis focuses on interference mitigation
in LiFi attocell networks.
The angle diversity receiver (ADR) is one solution to address the issue of ICI as well as
frequency reuse in LiFi attocell networks. With the property of high concentration gain and
narrow field of view (FOV), the ADR is very beneficial for interference mitigation. However,
the optimum structure of the ADR has not been investigated. This motivates us to propose the
optimum structures for the ADRs in order to fully exploit the performance gain. The impact
of random device orientation and diffuse link signal propagation are taken into consideration.
The performance comparison between the select best combining (SBC) and maximum ratio
combining (MRC) is carried out under different noise levels. In addition, the double source
(DS) system, where each LiFi access point (AP) consists of two sources transmitting the same
information signals but with opposite polarity, is proven to outperform the single source (SS)
system under certain conditions.
Then, to overcome issues around ICI, random device orientation and link blockage, hybrid
LiFi/WiFi networks (HLWNs) are considered. In this thesis, dynamic load balancing (LB)
considering handover in HLWNs is studied. The orientation-based random waypoint (ORWP)
mobility model is considered to provide a more realistic framework to evaluate the performance
of HLWNs. Based on the low-pass filtering effect of the LiFi channel, we firstly propose
an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)-based resource allocation (RA)
method in LiFi systems. Also, an enhanced evolutionary game theory (EGT)-based LB scheme
with handover in HLWNs is proposed.
Finally, due to the characteristic of high directivity and narrow beams, a vertical-cavity
surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) array transmission system has been proposed to mitigate
ICI. In order to support mobile users, two beam activation methods are proposed. The
beam activation based on the corner-cube retroreflector (CCR) can achieve low power
consumption and almost-zero delay, allowing real-time beam activation for high-speed users.
The mechanism based on the omnidirectional transmitter (ODTx) is suitable for low-speed
users and very robust to random orientation
Downlink system characterisation in LiFi Attocell networks
There is a trend to move the frequency band for wireless transmission to ever higher frequencies
in the radio frequency (RF) spectrum to fulfil the exponentially increasing demand in wireless
communication capacity. Research work has gone into improving the spectral efficiency of
wireless communication system to use the scarce and expensive resources in the most efficient
way. However, to make wireless communication future-proof, it is essential to explore ways
to transmit wirelessly outside the traditional RF spectrum. The visible light (VL) spectrum
bandwidth is 1000 times wider than the entire 300 GHz RF spectrum and is, therefore, a viable
alternative. Visible light communication (VLC) enables existing lighting infrastructures to provide
not only illumination but also wireless communication. In conjunction with the concept
of cell densification, a networked VLC system, light fidelity attocell (LAC) network, has been
proposed to offer wide coverage and high speed wireless data transmission. In this study, many
issues related to the downlink system in LAC networks have been investigated.
When analysing the downlink performance of LAC networks, a large number of random channel
samples are required for the empirical calculation of some system metrics, such as the
signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). However, using state-of-the-art approaches to
calculate the non-line-of-sight (NLoS) channel component leads to significant computational
complexity and prolonged computation time. An analytical method has been presented in this
thesis to efficiently calculate the NLoS channel impulse response (CIR) in VLC systems. The
results show that the proposed method offers significant reduction in computation time compared
to the state-of-the-art approaches.
A comprehensive performance evaluation of the downlink system of LAC networks is carried
out in this thesis. Based on the research results in the literature in the field of optical wireless
communication (OWC), a system level framework for the downlink system in LAC networks
is developed. By using this framework, the downlink performance subject to a large number
of parameters is evaluated. Additionally, the effect of varying network size, cell deployment
and key system parameters are investigated. The calculation of downlink SINR statistics, cell
data rate and outage probability are considered and analysed. The results show that the downlink
performance of LAC networks is promising in terms of achievable data rate per unit area
compared to other state-of-the-art RF small-cell networks.
It is found that co-channel interference (CCI) is a major source of signal impairment in the
downlink of LAC network. In order to mitigate the influence of CCI on signal distortion in
LAC networks, widely used interference mitigation techniques for RF cellular systems are borrowed
and extensively investigated. In this study, fractional frequency reuse (FFR) is adapted
to the downlink of LAC networks. The SINR statistics and the spectral efficiency in LAC
downlink system with FFR schemes are evaluated. Results show that the FFR technique can
greatly improve the performance of cell edge users and as well the overall spectral efficiency.
Further performance improvements can be achieved by incorporating angular diversity transmitters
(ADTs) with FFR and coordinated multi-point joint transmission (JT) techniques
High speed energy efficient incoherent optical wireless communications
The growing demand for wireless communication capacity and the overutilisation of the conventional
radio frequency (RF) spectrum have inspired research into using alternative spectrum
regions for communication. Using optical wireless communications (OWC), for example, offers
significant advantages over RF communication in terms of higher bandwidth, lower implementation
costs and energy savings. In OWC systems, the information signal has to be
real and non-negative. Therefore, modifications to the conventional communication algorithms
are required. Multicarrier modulation schemes like orthogonal frequency division multiplexing
(OFDM) promise to deliver a more efficient use of the communication capacity through adaptive
bit and energy loading techniques. Three OFDM-based schemes – direct-current-biased OFDM
(DCO-OFDM), asymmetrically clipped optical OFDM(ACO-OFDM), and pulse-amplitude modulated
discrete multitone (PAM-DMT) – have been introduced in the literature.
The current work investigates the recently introduced scheme subcarrier-index modulation OFDM
as a potential energy-efficient modulation technique with reduced peak-to-average power ratio
(PAPR) suitable for applications in OWC. A theoretical model for the analysis of SIM-OFDMin a
linear additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel is provided. A closed-form solution for the
PAPR in SIM-OFDM is also proposed. Following the work on SIM-OFDM, a novel inherently
unipolar modulation scheme, unipolar orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (U-OFDM), is
proposed as an alternative to the existing similar schemes: ACO-OFDMand PAM-DMT. Furthermore,
an enhanced U-OFDMsignal generation algorithm is introduced which allows the spectral
efficiency gap between the inherently unipolar modulation schemes – U-OFDM, ACO-OFDM,
PAM-DMT – and the conventionally used DCO-OFDM to be closed. This results in an OFDM-based
modulation approach which is electrically and optically more efficient than any other
OFDM-based technique proposed so far for intensity modulation and direct detection (IM/DD)
communication systems.
Non-linear distortion in the optical front-end elements is one of the major limitations for high-speed
communication in OWC. This work presents a generalised approach for analysing nonlinear
distortion in OFDM-based modulation schemes. The presented technique leads to a closed-form
analytical solution for an arbitrary memoryless distortion of the information signal and has
been proven to work for the majority of the known unipolar OFDM-based modulation techniques
- DCO-OFDM, ACO-OFDM, PAM-DMT and U-OFDM.
The high-speed communication capabilities of novel Gallium Nitride based μm-sized light emitting
diodes (μLEDs) are investigated, and a record-setting result of 3.5Gb/s using a single 50-μm
device is demonstrated. The capabilities of using such devices at practical transmission distances
are also investigated, and a 1 Gb/s link using a single device is demonstrated at a distance of up
to 10m. Furthermore, a proof-of-concept experiment is realised where a 50-μm LED is successfully
modulated using U-OFDM and enhanced U-OFDM to achieve notable energy savings in
comparison to DCO-OFDM