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 ; TÜBİTAKPublisher versio

Lights and Shadows: A Comprehensive Survey on Cooperative and Precoding Schemes to Overcome LOS Blockage and Interference in Indoor VLC

Visible light communications (VLC) have received significant attention as a way of moving part of the saturated indoor wireless traffic to the wide and unregulated visible optical spectrum. Nowadays, VLC are considered as a suitable technology, for several applications such as high-rate data transmission, supporting internet of things communications or positioning. The signal processing originally derived from radio-frequency (RF) systems such as cooperative or precoding schemes can be applied to VLC. However, its implementation is not straightforward. Furthermore, unlike RF transmission, VLC present a predominant line-of-sight link, although a weak non-LoS component may appear due to the reflection of the light on walls, floor, ceiling and nearby objects. Blocking effects may compromise the performance of the aforementioned transmission schemes. There exist several surveys in the literature focused on VLC and its applications, but the management of the shadowing and interference in VLC requires a comprehensive study. To fill this gap, this work introduces the implementation of cooperative and precoding schemes to VLC, while remarking their benefits and drawbacks for overcoming the shadowing effects. After that, the combination of both cooperative and precoding schemes is analyzed as a way of providing resilient VLC networks. Finally, we propose several open issues that the cooperative and precoding schemes must face in order to provide satisfactory VLC performance in indoor scenarios.This work has been supported partially by Spanish National Project TERESA-ADA(TEC2017-90093-C3-2-R) (MINECO/AEI/FEDER, UE), the research project GEOVEOLUZ-CM-UC3Mfunded by the call “Programa de apoyo a la realización de proyectos interdisciplinares de I+D parajóvenes investigadores de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid 2019-2020” under the frame ofthe Convenio Plurianual Comunidad de Madrid-Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and projectMadrid Flight on Chip (Innovation Cooperative Projects Comunidad of Madrid - HUBS 2018/MadridFlightOnChip). Additionally, it has been supported partially by the Juan de la CiervaIncorporación grant IJC2019-040317-I and Juan de la Cierva Formación grant (FJC2019-039541-I/AEI/10.13039/501100011033)

Advanced Trends in Wireless Communications

Physical limitations on wireless communication channels impose huge challenges to reliable communication. Bandwidth limitations, propagation loss, noise and interference make the wireless channel a narrow pipe that does not readily accommodate rapid flow of data. Thus, researches aim to design systems that are suitable to operate in such channels, in order to have high performance quality of service. Also, the mobility of the communication systems requires further investigations to reduce the complexity and the power consumption of the receiver. This book aims to provide highlights of the current research in the field of wireless communications. The subjects discussed are very valuable to communication researchers rather than researchers in the wireless related areas. The book chapters cover a wide range of wireless communication topics

Coexistence of directional and non-directional technologies in 6G wireless dense networks

Dense networks are characterized by the prevalence of wireless access points (APs) in close proximity to a population of user devices on a similar scale. By increasing AP density, the aggregate data consumption of a system can be dramatically increased. In this dissertation we consider dense deployment of directional visible light APs. Firstly, we analyze the performance of a visible light communication (VLC) link and propose algorithmic methods as well as novel receiver structures to enhance its quality. Secondly, we study handover algorithms and investigate an AP placement strategy that ties to the system outage probability. Thirdly, we use a geometric model for an indoor space and a reference optical channel model to formulate an optimization problem that proposes a dynamic field of view (FOV) receiver with a goal of optimizing receiver FOV for maximum signal to noise ratio (SNR). From the promising results we get, we then propose the dynamic FOV technique with receiver tracking capability. Its results show an average SNR increase of up to 40% when compared to a fixed FOV receiver. These results motivate the adoption of dynamic pointing and adaptive FOV at the receiver in order to realize improved performance for mobile devices in an optical wireless dense network. This opts us to study interference in VLC systems and how to mitigate it using our proposed receivers. In the context of multi-user networks, we formulate two main novel optimization problems i) a joint optimization of transmit emission pattern and transmit power while satisfying illumination requirements and ii) an optimization to allocate users, balance the network load and optimize device FOV for best performance. We then evaluate the effect of self-blockage as well as random human blockers on our proposed receivers. Finally, we propose to deploy the VLC system in a hybrid setting of other technologies to evaluate the overall system performance for future 6G networks.2022-01-17T00:00:00

LiFi Transceiver Designs for 6G Wireless Networks

Due to the dramatic increase in high data rate services, and in order to meet the demands of the sixth-generation (6G) wireless networks, researchers from both academia and industry have been exploring advanced transmission techniques, new network archi- tectures and new frequency bands, such as the millimeter wave (mmWave), the infrared, and the visible light bands. Light-fdelity (LiFi) particularly is an emerging, novel, bidirectional, high-speed and fully networked optical wireless communication (OWC) technology that has been introduced as a promising solution for 6G networks, especially for indoor connectivity, owing to the large unexploited spectrum that translates to signifcantly high data rates. Although there has been a big leap in the maturity of the LiFi technology, there is still a considerable gap between the available LiFi technology and the required demands of 6G networks. Motivated by this, this dissertation aims to bridge between the current research literature of LiFi and the expected demands of 6G networks. Specifcally, the key goal of this dissertation is to fll some shortcomings in the LiFi technology, such as channel modeling, transceiver designs, channel state information (CSI) acquisition, localization, quality-of-service (QoS), and performance optimization. Our work is devoted to address and solve some of these limitations. Towards achieving this goal, this dissertation makes signifcant contributions to several areas of LiFi. First, it develops novel and measurements-based channel models for LiFi systems that are required for performance analysis and handover management. Second, it proposes a novel design for LiFi devices that is capable of alleviating the real behaviour of users and the impurities of indoor propagation environments. Third, it proposes intelligent, accurate and fast joint position and orientation techniques for LiFi devices, which improve the CSI estimation process and boost the indoor location-based and navigation-based services. Then, it proposes novel proactive optimization technique that can provide near-optimal and real-time service for indoor mobile LiFi users that are running some services with high data rates, such as extended reality, video conferencing, and real-time video monitoring. Finally, it proposes advanced multiple access techniques that are capable of cancelling the efects of interference in indoor multi-user settings. The studied problems are tackled using various tools from probability and statistic theory, system design and integration theory, optimization theory, and deep learning. The Results demonstrate the efectiveness of the proposed designs, solutions, and techniques. Nevertheless, the fndings in this dissertation highlight key guidelines for the efective design of LiFi while considering their unique propagation features