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)

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

Resource allocation in user-centric optical wireless cellular networks based on blind interference alignment

Visible light communications (VLC) have been recently proposed to enhance the capacity of next generation of wireless services. Moreover, VLC networks usually comprise a large number of overlapping optical access points (APs). Moreover, each of these APs provides a small and confined area of coverage in order to generate satisfactory illumination. In this work, a user-centric (UC) clustering formation based on the K-means algorithm is proposed to manage the inter-cell interference (ICI) and enhance the performance of VLC networks. Moreover, assuming that each user is equipped with a reconfigurable photodetector, the use of blind interference alignment (BIA) in each UC cluster is considered. Notice that the data rate demands are not the same for all the users. We formulate an optimization problem to maximize the utility of the network resources allocated to the users based on their demands. After that, a centralized algorithm is proposed to obtain an optimal solution through exhaustive search, which is subject to high complexity. To reduce the complexity of this optimization problem, the problem is divided into sub-problems based on the number of constructed UC clusters. Then, a distributed algorithm via Lagrangian multipliers is proposed within each UC cluster with the aim of providing a near optimal solution to the centralized algorithm. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed resource allocation algorithms provide higher performance than a uniform resource allocation scheme among users.The work of Ahmad Adnan Qidan and Jaafar M. H. Elmirghani has been supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), in part by the INTERNET project under Grant EP/H040536/1, in part by the STAR project under Grant P/K016873/1, and in part by the TOWS project under Grant EP/S016570/1. All data are provided in full in the results section of this paper. The work of Máximo Morales-Céspedes and Ana García Armada was supported by the Spanish National Project TERESAADA (TEC2017-90093-C3-2-R) (MINECO/AEI/FEDER, UE) and the project GEOVEOLUZ-CM-UC3M. The work of Máximo Morales-Céspedes was also supported by the Juan de la Cierva IncorporacioÌn under Grant IJC2019-040317-I

Resource Allocation in User-Centric Optical Wireless Cellular Networks based on Blind Interference Alignment

Visible light communications (VLC) have been recently proposed to enhance the capacity of next generation of wireless services. Moreover, VLC networks usually comprise a large number of overlapping optical access points (APs). Moreover, each of these APs provides a small and confined area of coverage in order to generate satisfactory illumination. In this work, a user-centric (UC) clustering formation based on the K-means algorithm is proposed to manage the inter-cell interference (ICI) and enhance the performance of VLC networks. Moreover, assuming that each user is equipped with a reconfigurable photodetector, the use of blind interference alignment (BIA) in each UC cluster is considered. Notice that the data rate demands are not the same for all the users. We formulate an optimization problem to maximize the utility of the network resources allocated to the users based on their demands. After that, a centralized algorithm is proposed to obtain an optimal solution through exhaustive search, which is subject to high complexity. To reduce the complexity of this optimization problem, the problem is divided into sub-problems based on the number of constructed UC clusters. Then, a distributed algorithm via Lagrangian multipliers is proposed within each UC cluster with the aim of providing a near optimal solution to the centralized algorithm. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed resource allocation algorithms provide higher performance than a uniform resource allocation scheme among users.The work of Ahmad Adnan Qidan and Jaafar M. H. Elmirghani has been supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), in part by the INTERNET project under Grant EP/H040536/1, in part by the STAR project under Grant P/K016873/1, and in part by the TOWS project under Grant EP/S016570/1. All data are provided in full in the results section of this paper. The work of Máximo Morales-Céspedes and Ana García Armada was supported by the Spanish National Project TERESAADA (TEC2017-90093-C3-2-R) (MINECO/AEI/FEDER, UE) and the project GEOVEOLUZ-CM-UC3M. The work of Máximo Morales-Céspedes was also supported by the Juan de la Cierva IncorporacioÌn under Grant IJC2019-040317-I

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