263 research outputs found
Introduction to indoor networking concepts and challenges in LiFi
LiFi is networked, bidirectional wireless communication with light. It is used to connect fixed and mobile devices at very high data rates by harnessing the visible light and infrared spectrum. Combined, these spectral resources are 2600 times larger than the entire radio frequency (RF) spectrum. This paper provides the motivation behind why LiFi is a very timely technology, especially for 6th generation (6G) cellular communications. It discusses and reviews essential networking technologies, such as interference mitigation and hybrid LiFi/Wi-Fi networking topologies. We also consider the seamless integration of LiFi into existing wireless networks to form heterogeneous networks across the optical and RF domains and discuss implications and solutions in terms of load balancing. Finally, we provide the results of a real-world hybrid LiFi/Wi-Fi network deployment in a software defined networking testbed. In addition, results from a LiFi deployment in a school classroom are provided, which show that Wi-Fi network performance can be improved significantly by offloading traffic to the LiFi
Load balancing in hybrid VLC and RF networks based on blind interference alignment
Visible light communications (VLC) are proposed for increasing the spectral efficiency and the number of devices served in indoor environments, while providing illumination through light emitting diodes (LED). For VLC, each optical access point (AP) provides a small and confined area of coverage. Since several sources of light are usually deployed in overlapping fashion in order to provide satisfactory illumination, VLC are limited by inter-cell interference. Moreover, transmission from a specific optical AP can be blocked by the elements of the scenario. On the other hand, radio-frequency (RF) systems such as WiFi are usually available in most of the indoor scenarios. In this work, we first propose a dynamic cell formation method for grouping the optical APs in multiple optical cells that cover a footprint each minimizing the inter-cell interference. After that, we use transmission based on blind interference alignment (BIA) in each optical cell. Considering the coexistence with RF systems based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), a load balancing algorithm is proposed for managing the resources of the resulting hybrid VLC/RF network and determining the user association to each system. However, the complexity of this optimization problem is excessively high for practical VLC/RF networks. In order to obtain a suboptimal but tractable solution, we propose a decentralized optimization method based on Lagrangian multipliers. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms other approaches for user grouping and managing the resources of hybrid VLC/RF networks.This work was supported in part by the Spanish National Project TERESA-ADA under Grant TEC2017-90093-C3-2-R and Grant MINECO/AEI/FEDER, UE, and in part by the research project GEOVEOLUZ-CM-UC3M funded by the call Programa de apoyo a la realización de proyectos interdisciplinares de I+D para jóvenes investigadores de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid 2019-2020 under the frame of the Convenio Plurianual Comunidad de Madrid, Universidad Carlos III de Madri
Heterogeneous integration of optical wireless communications within next generation networks
Unprecedented traffic growth is expected in future wireless networks and new
technologies will be needed to satisfy demand. Optical wireless (OW) communication offers vast unused spectrum and high area spectral efficiency. In this work, optical
cells are envisioned as supplementary access points within heterogeneous RF/OW networks. These networks opportunistically offload traffic to optical cells while utilizing
the RF cell for highly mobile devices and devices that lack a reliable OW connection.
Visible light communication (VLC) is considered as a potential OW technology due
to the increasing adoption of solid state lighting for indoor illumination.
Results of this work focus on a full system view of RF/OW HetNets with three primary areas of analysis. First, the need for network densication beyond current RF
small cell implementations is evaluated. A media independent model is developed
and results are presented that provide motivation for the adoption of hyper dense
small cells as complementary components within multi-tier networks. Next, the relationships between RF and OW constraints and link characterization parameters are
evaluated in order to define methods for fair comparison when user-centric channel
selection criteria are used. RF and OW noise and interference characterization techniques are compared and common OW characterization models are demonstrated
to show errors in excess of 100x when dominant interferers are present. Finally,
dynamic characteristics of hyper dense OW networks are investigated in order to optimize traffic distribution from a network-centric perspective. A Kalman Filter model
is presented to predict device motion for improved channel selection and a novel OW
range expansion technique is presented that dynamically alters coverage regions of
OW cells by 50%.
In addition to analytical results, the dissertation describes two tools that have
been created for evaluation of RF/OW HetNets. A communication and lighting
simulation toolkit has been developed for modeling and evaluation of environments
with VLC-enabled luminaires. The toolkit enhances an iterative site based impulse
response simulator model to utilize GPU acceleration and achieves 10x speedup over
the previous model. A software defined testbed for OW has also been proposed
and applied. The testbed implements a VLC link and a heterogeneous RF/VLC
connection that demonstrates the RF/OW HetNet concept as proof of concept
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