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The availability of LED-based headlights and taillights makes possible the use of visible light communication (VLC) as a wireless access technology for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications. A critical concern to establish a reliable VLC link between two moving vehicles is the number of photodetectors and their locations on the destination vehicle. In this paper, we experimentally investigate the usage of dual photodetectors for a vehicular VLC system with selection combining to enhance signal reception in mobile conditions. We measure the electrical receive signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for each individual photodetector as well as at the output of selection combiner in two different tracks involving straight and curved roads. Through data fitting to experimental data, we obtain a probability density function (PDF) to describe the instantaneous SNR. Based on the PDF, we derive a closed-form expression for the average bit error rate (BER) in the form of a finite summation and compare it with the measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Weight reduction and low power consumption are key requirements in the next generation of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) networks. Employing modulating retro-reflector (MRR)-based free space optical (FSO) technology is an innovative technique for UAV-to-ground communication in order to reduce the payload weight and power consumption of UAVs which leads to increased maneuverability and flight time of UAV. In this paper, we consider an MRR-based FSO system for UAV-to-ground communication. We will show that the performance of the considered system is very sensitive to tracking errors. Therefore, to assess the benefits of MRR-based UAV deployment for FSO communications, the MRR-based UAV FSO channel is characterized by taking into account tracking system errors along with UAV’s orientation fluctuations, link length, UAV’s height, optical beam divergence angle, effective area of MRR, atmospheric turbulence and optical channel loss in the double-pass channels. To enable effective performance analysis, tractable and closed-form expressions are derived for probability density function of end-to-end signal to noise ratio, outage probability and bit error rate of the considered system under both weak-to-moderate and moderate-to-strong atmospheric turbulence conditions. The accuracy of the analytical expressions is verified by extensive simulations. Analytical results are then used to study the relationship between the optimal system design and tracking system errors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates different precoding strategies for rate splitting multiple access (RSMA) in the downlink of multi-cell visible light communication (VLC) networks. Since classical Shannon capacity formula does not hold for VLC, we first provide a lower bound on the channel capacity for RSMA in such interfering networks. Then, we formulate a spectral efficiency maximization problem to jointly find the optimal rate-splitting and transmit precoding. Beside that, since cell-edge users suffer from additional inter-cell interference, we propose to design the precoders of different RSMA signals utilizing coordinated beamforming (CB). Subsequently, aiming to improve the performance of the CB design for RSMA, while maintain a reduced complexity, we introduce two enhanced precoding strategies for RSMA. To the best of the authors’ knowledge such a contribution has not been considered before in the open literature. It is shown in the paper that the formulated optimization problem is non-convex and a sub-optimal, yet, a low complexity solution can be obtained efficiently using semi-definite relaxation combined with successive convex approximation. Through analytical results, we illustrate the flexibility and superiority of the proposed precoding strategies for RSMA over conventional coordinated space division multiple access and non-orthogonal multiple access for different scenarios and network loads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vehicular visible light communication (V-VLC) aims to provide secure complementary vehicle-to-everything-communications (V2X) to increase road safety and traffic efficiency. V-VLC provides directional transmissions, mainly enabling line-of-sight (LoS) communications. However, reflections due to nearby objects enable non-line-of-sight (NLoS) transmissions, extending the usage scenarios beyond LoS. In this paper, we propose wide-band measurement based NLoS channel characterization, and evaluate the performance of direct current biased optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DCO-OFDM) V-VLC scheme for NLoS channel. We propose a distance based NLoS V-VLC channel path loss model considering reflection surface characteristics and NLoS V-VLC channel impulse response (CIR) incorporating the temporal broadening effect due to vehicle reflections through weighted double gamma function. The proposed path loss model yields higher accuracy up to 14 dB when compared to single order reflection model whereas CIR model estimates the full width at half maximum up to 2 ns accuracy. We further demonstrate that the target bit-error-rate of $10^{-3}$ can be achieved up to 7.86 m, 9.79 m, and 17.62 m distances for black, orange and white vehicle reflection induced measured NLoS V-VLC channels for DCO-OFDM transmissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visible light communication (VLC) is an emerging technology that has been gaining attention over the last few years. Transmission of data at higher rates in a VLC system is mainly limited by the modulation bandwidth of the employed LED. To alleviate this limitation, equalization is frequently employed. This is usually achieved by either using discrete circuit elements or in digital form. In this paper, we present a power-efficient VLC receiver as a system-on-chip, implemented in 130 nm CMOS technology. The proposed receiver supports LEDs with different bandwidths thanks to the switchable equalizer. We tested the proposed receiver using phosphorescent white LEDs with different bandwidths on an experimental VLC link. For each tested LED, around 20 fold improvement in data rate was achieved compared to the original bandwidth of the LED. For the LED with a modulation bandwidth of 1.6 MHz, data rates of 32 Mbps and 50 Mbps at a BER of $10^{-2}$ were obtained at a distance of 2 meters without and with a blue filter, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visible light communication (VLC) building on the existing illumination infrastructure utilizes light emitting diode (LED) luminaries as wireless transmitters. To achieve data rates on the order of gigabits per second in VLC systems, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmission has been identified as a key technology. In this paper, we consider a centralized network architecture where the ceiling LED luminaries act as transmitter elements of a distributed massive MIMO VLC system. To obtain the full benefits of massive MIMO, channel state information must be available at the transmitter side. Downlink (DL) channel estimation in a massive MIMO system requires huge pilot overhead in DL as well as feedback overhead in uplink. This makes the implementation of massive MIMO system infeasible if not properly designed. In our study, we address the design of massive MIMO VLC systems with a limited number of DL pilot signals. We explore different DL pilot patterns (PPs) in frequency, time, and spatial domains where interpolation is performed to obtain the global channel matrix taking advantage of the indoor environment geometry and layout of luminaries. We then present data rate results for different DL PPs under the consideration of varying number of active user equipments through Monte-Carlo simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inter-cell interference (ICI) and inter-user interference (IUI) constitute a major issue towards achieving the optimum spectral efficiency (SE) and energy efficiency (EE) performance in multi-cell visible light communication (VLC) networks. Hence, advanced multiple access techniques need to be leveraged in order to improve the provided service to the users of such interfering networks. To this end, the present contribution proposes the integration of coordinated beamforming (CB) with rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA) in multi-cell VLC systems. Specifically, we consider the design of beamformers for the common and private streams in a coordinated manner between different attocells, which is shown to provide efficient mitigation of the incurred interference. Additionally, the formulated optimization problem aims to minimize the sum of the mean squared error across all attocells in order to jointly determine the optimum receive filters and coordinated transmit beamformers for RSMA streams. In this context, we illustrate through extensive computer simulations, which are carried out in a realistic setup that assumes noisy channel state information acquisition, the distinct flexibility and robustness of CB-based RSMA in mitigating the incurred interference. Finally, the offered results demonstrate the superiority of CB-based RSMA in terms of achievable SE and EE performance in multi-cell VLC networks compared to the conventional CB-based space division multiple access counterpart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visible light communication (VLC) has emerged as a potential wireless connectivity solution for infrastructure-to-vehicle (I2V) communications. In this paper, we investigate the performance of I2V VLC systems with access points in the form of streetlights. Particularly, we consider a typical two-lane highway road where the light poles are located at both roadsides and uniformly separated from each other. Based on non-sequential ray tracing simulations, we first propose a closed-form path loss expression as a function of transceiver and infrastructure parameters. Then, we statistically analyze the path loss and derive a closed-form expression for its probability distribution function (PDF). Utilizing the derived PDF, we derive an approximate closed-form bit error rate (BER) expression. We confirm the accuracy of derived BER expression through comparison with Monte Carlo simulation results and demonstrate the effect of transceiver and infrastructure parameters such as receiver aperture, pole height, car height, lateral shift, and spacing between light poles on the BER performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visible light communication (VLC) builds upon the dual use of LED-based lighting infrastructure for data transmission. It is particularly attractive for user-dense environments and mainly positioned as a complementary wireless access technology to radio-frequency (RF) counterparts. The practical implementation of hybrid light/radio access networks requires the design of efficient vertical and horizontal handover mechanisms to exploit their complementary features. In this paper, we propose an event-triggered adaptive handover mechanism for centralized hybrid VLC/millimeter wave (MMW) systems. Unlike distributed architectures where all the functionalities are deployed in each access point (AP), the centralized systems allow better optimization of network parameters due to awareness of global network view. The proposed handover mechanism takes advantage of this architecture and uses offset-enhanced signal-to-interference plus noise ratio levels of APs as performance metrics. To ensure balanced distribution of user equipment (UE) numbers between two underlying technologies, it auto-tunes the offset variables using rule-set based algorithms based on the number of connected UEs and data rates as inputs. Our results demonstrate that the proposed handover mechanism significantly improves hybrid system performance via adaptive tuning of AP selection parameter while minimizing signaling overhead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate simultaneous lightwave information and power transfer (SLIPT) for underwater visible light communication systems. We consider three SLIPT methods namely time switching (TS), power splitting (PS) and time switching-power splitting (TS-PS) where the splitting/switching factors are defined as optimization parameters. For each of these methods, we derive closed-form expressions for the average harvested energy, bit error rate and spectral efficiency in the presence of underwater turbulence modeled by lognormal statistics. Using these expressions, we determine the optimal splitting factors to maximize the harvested energy while satisfying a given bit error rate value and a given threshold spectral efficiency value. Our results reveal that, if not optimized, SLIPT methods under consideration are outperformed by the simple AC-DC separation (ADS) method which provides the largest harvested energy versus spectral efficiency (HE-SE) region. Optimization of splitting/switching factors extends the HE-SE regions; hence, optimized versions of TS, PS and TS-PS methods are able to significantly outperform ADS for most cases. We further investigate the effect of various channel and system parameters such as water type, turbulence level, beam divergence, receiver aperture size on the harvested energy and quantify the improvements in battery lifetime through the use of SLIPT methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this letter, we analyze the coverage performance of multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) downlink cellular networks. We model the locations of the base stations and mobile users using Poisson Point Processes and employ maximum ratio transmission precoding at the base station. Our analysis builds upon Prony’s method to approximately calculate the coverage probability using the sum of exponentials which facilitates the computation of Laplace transform of both intra-cell and inter-cell interference. We demonstrate the accuracy of derived approximate coverage probability expressions through numerical simulations for different MU-MIMO configurations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this letter, we investigate the performance of vehicular visible light communications based on the radiation patterns of different commercial taillights (TLs) using non-sequential ray tracing simulations. Our simulation results indicate a significant variation in the path loss compared with Lambertian model. Based on the ray tracing results, we propose a new path loss model as a function of the propagation distance considering the asymmetrical radiation pattern of TLs. We use this model to derive the attainable transmission distance. We further present the delay spread for various vehicular communication scenarios to demonstrate the effect of neighboring vehicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LiFi has been considered as a promising candidate for future wireless indoor networks. The IEEE P802.15.13 and P802.11bb standardization groups agreed upon channel models generated using the non-sequential ray tracing approach of OpticStudio. In this paper, in order to validate the channel modelling approach, at first $2\times2$ multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel measurements are carried out over 200 MHz bandwidth using a channel sounder. The experimental scenario is also modeled in 3D by applying ray tracing. The obtained results indicate good agreement between simulations and measured channel impulse responses, from which parameters such as path loss and delay spread are derived. After validating the channel modeling approach, we investigate the singular values and the effect of user mobility onto the performance in a $4\times4$ distributed multi-user MIMO scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generalized light emitting diode (LED) index modulation (GLIM) has been proposed as an effective multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) scheme for visible light communications (VLC) systems. In this letter, we propose a magnitude and wrap-phase OFDM (MW-OFDM) scheme for MIMO VLC systems. The proposed MW-OFDM system relies on the conversion of complex signals into polar form with the magnitudes and wrap-phases to decrease the restriction on the number of LEDs compared to the conventional GLIM-OFDM. Furthermore, maximum likelihood and best linear unbiased estimators of the proposed scheme are derived. The proposed MW-OFDM scheme improves the average bit error rate and provides a significant reduction in the decoding complexity, compared to the GLIM-OFDM. Moreover, a half number of LEDs are required for the proposed scheme to deliver the same spectral efficiency in a comparison with the GLIM-OFDM. Numerical results are presented over MIMO VLC channels to elaborate the superiority of our proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we propose a cross-layer resource management mechanism for an indoor multiuser visible light communication (VLC) access network. The physical layer builds upon DC-biased orthogonal frequency division multiple access. Channel state information at the physical layer serves as a performance indicator for better data rate opportunity while queue state information at medium access control layer provides the information about packet urgency. A packet based traffic arrival model is considered such that incoming packets with random inter arrival times join a separate queue dedicated to each user if the admission control accepts them, otherwise packets are dropped. We formulate and solve a stochastic cross-layer optimization problem to optimize the network resources under the constraints of queue stability and power to maximize the average system throughput. By using the Lyapunov optimization technique, we convert the long term time-average optimization problem into series of single time slot online problem. Then, we decompose the problem into independent sub problems and propose packet admission, resource (access point and subcarrier) allocation and power control solutions. We present simulation results to demonstrate the superiority of proposed scheme over existing solutions in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free space optical (FSO) communication systems provide high bandwidth in unregulated spectrum and act as a powerful line-of-sight wireless connectivity solution. The performance of FSO systems can be seriously impaired by fading as a result of atmospheric turbulence and/or pointing errors due to misalignment. In the context of FSO systems, relaying was proposed as an effective fading mitigation technique due to the fact that the variance is distance-dependent in turbulence channels. In this article, we present a unified performance analysis of multi-hop FSO systems over Double Generalized Gamma (DGG) turbulence channels with pointing error impairments. We assume amplify-and-forward relaying and consider both heterodyne detection and intensity modulation with direct detection. We derive tight closed-form expressions for the outage probability and bit error probability of both fixed-gain and channel state information (CSI)-assisted relaying in terms of the bivariate Fox-H functions and Fox-H functions, respectively. We further analyze asymptotic behavior of the outage probability in terms of simple elementary functions and obtain the achievable diversity orders. Diversity gain is found to be a function of atmospheric turbulence parameters, pointing error, detection type and the number of hops. Monte Carlo simulation results are further provided to verify the accuracy of the derived expressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider a network-coded cooperative (NCC) system that consists of $N \ge 2$ sources, $M\ge 1$ decode-and-forward (DF) relays, and a single destination. The relays perform network coding (NC) on the received sources’ symbols using maximum distance separable (MDS) codes. For this system, we propose the most generalized user-relay selection (GURS) scheme in the literature that selects any arbitrary subsets of $K$ users and any arbitrary subsets of $L$ relays subject to practical constraints such as load balancing conditions and scheduling policy. Our analytical results and design guidelines generalize and subsume all existing results as special cases. To this end, we derive a new closed-form outage probability (OP) expression, assuming non–identically and independently distributed (n.i.i.d.) Rayleigh fading channels. The asymptotic outage expression at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime is further derived, based on which, the achievable diversity order and coding gain are quantified. The theoretical derivations are also validated through Monte-Carlo simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underwater visible light communication (UVLC) has been introduced to support emerging high data rate applications such as real-time image and video transmission. Initial works on UVLC build upon the assumption of fixed turbulence strength through the transmission range which can be justified only for horizontal links. In vertical underwater links, the gradient of temperature and salinity changes with depth. This effectively results in ocean stratification where water with different values of salinity and temperature form non-mixing layers. In this paper, we first model the vertical underwater link as a cascaded fading channel where fading coefficients associated with different layers are modeled as independent and non-identical distributed. Based on the cascaded lognormal and Gamma-Gamma distributions respectively for weak and moderate/strong turbulence conditions, we first derive closed-form expressions for the bit error rate (BER) performance of UVLC systems. Then, we analyze the asymptotic BER performance and determine the diversity orders. In addition, we derive closed-form expressions for the average ergodic capacity of underwater cascaded fading channels under consideration. We present simulation results to confirm the analytical findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visible light communication (VLC) has emerged as a potential wireless connectivity solution for infrastructure-to-vehicle networks where street lights can be configured to serve as access points. In this letter, we propose dynamic soft handover algorithm based on coordinated multipoint (CoMP) transmission. The proposed algorithm takes the rate of change in the received power as an input and accordingly revises the handover margin and time-to-trigger value without explicit information of the vehicle velocity. Our simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms conventional CoMP and hard handover and maintains a stable signal quality regardless of vehicle velocity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In free space optical communication systems, transmit laser selection (TLS) has been proposed as an efficient fading-mitigation technique over turbulence channels. In TLS, the transmitter is equipped with a number of laser sources and the best laser source is selected for transmission. In practice, feedback error or outdated selection due to temporal changes in the channel may result in selecting another source rather than the best one. In this letter, we consider a FSOC system with generalized TLS (GTLS) where the ${n^{\text {th}}}$ best laser is selected among the available $N$ lasers. Under the assumption of lognormal turbulence channels in addition to pointing errors, we derive a closed-form expression for asymptotic bit error rate. We use our derived closed-form expression to determine the diversity gains. We finally present simulation results to corroborate our analytical findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visible light communication (VLC) has been proposed as an alternative or complementary technology to radio frequency vehicular communications. Front and back vehicle lights can serve as wireless transmitters making VLC a natural vehicular connectivity solution. In this paper, we evaluate the performance limits of vehicular VLC systems. First, we use non-sequential ray tracing to obtain the channel impulse responses (CIRs) for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) link in various weather conditions. Based on these CIRs, we present a closed-form path loss expression which builds upon the summation of geometrical loss and attenuation loss and takes into account asymmetrical patterns of vehicle light sources and geometry of V2V transmission. The proposed expression is an explicit function of link distance, lateral shift between two vehicles, weather type (quantified by the extinction coefficient), transmitter beam divergence angle and receiver aperture diameter. Then, we utilize this expression to determine the maximum achievable link distance of V2V systems for clear, rainy and foggy weather conditions while ensuring a targeted bit error rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free space optical (FSO) communication systems experience atmospheric turbulence-induced fading, which is typically modelled by lognormal distribution. Since the decreasing rate of error probability over lognormal fading channels does not converge to a finite value, the conventional definition of diversity order yields infinity and does not provide any insight into system design. In this letter, we propose the so-called incremental diversity order (IDO), which is defined as the incremental change in the decreasing rate of bit error rate (BER) on a log-log scale. As an example, we consider multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) FSO system over lognormal turbulence channels. We derive a novel closed-form BER expression in terms of Lambert-W function and obtain IDO as a function of the number of laser sources, the number of photodetectors and the variance of the log-amplitude coefficient. We further present numerical results to validate the derived BER expression and associated IDO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of light emitting diodes (LED) in automotive exterior lighting systems provides opportunities to develop viable alternatives to conventional communication and sensing technologies. Most of the advanced driver-assist and autonomous vehicle technologies are based on Radio Detection and Ranging (RADAR) or Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) systems that use radio frequency or laser signals, respectively. While reliable and real-time information on vehicle speeds is critical for traffic operations management and autonomous vehicles safety, RADAR or LiDAR systems have some deficiencies especially in curved road scenarios where the incidence angle is rapidly varying. In this paper, we propose a novel speed estimation system so-called the Visible Light Detection and Ranging (ViLDAR) that builds upon sensing visible light variation of the vehicle's headlamp. We determine the accuracy of the proposed speed estimator in straight and curved road scenarios. We further present how the algorithm design parameters and the channel noise level affect the speed estimation accuracy. For wide incidence angles, the simulation results show that the ViLDAR outperforms RADAR/LiDAR systems in both straight and curved road scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free space optical (FSO) communication systems provide line-of-sight wireless connectivity in the unlicensed optical spectrum and achieve higher data rates in comparison to their radio frequency (RF) counterparts. FSO systems are particularly attractive for the last mile access problem by establishing a connectivity bridge between optical fiber-based backbone and RF access networks. To address this practical deployment scenario, there has been an increasing attention on the so-called mixed (dual-hop) FSO-RF systems where FSO transmission is utilized at one hop followed by RF transmission at the other one. In this paper, we investigate the performance of mixed FSO-RF transmission systems where the FSO link is modeled by the double generalized Gamma distribution with generalized pointing error impairments and the RF link experiences the extended generalized-K shadowed fading. For both amplify-and-forward and decode-and-forward relaying, we derive closed-form expressions for outage probability, bit error probability, and ergodic capacity in terms of bivariate Fox-H function. Monte Carlo simulation results are provided to verify the accuracy of derived expressions. We further provide an asymptotic analysis and discuss the achievable diversity orders of mixed FSO-RF systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visible light communication (VLC) based systems are a viable green supplement to existing radio frequency based communication systems. However, it has been found that the performance of VLC based systems is impaired in conditions when the users are mobile with respect to the transmit luminaire. The relative motion of the mobile users with respect to the luminaire renders the overall VLC channel to be time-varying. Recently, the impact of user mobility on the overall channel impulse response has been modeled by a generalized time-varying VLC channel model, which necessitates for an efficient mechanism at the receiver to tackle this phenomenon. In addition to user mobility, the inter-symbol interference, and the nonlinear characteristics of the light emitting diode are major factors that limit throughput of a VLC-based communication system. To mitigate these impairments, existing techniques such as Volterra/Hammerstein based receivers suffer from modeling error due to truncation of the polynomial kernel till second order terms. Recently, sparse reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) based methods have been suggested that guarantee universal approximation with the reasonable computational simplicity. However, the choice of a single hyper-parameter restricts its ability to model time-varying channels/systems. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel RKHS based post-distorter that adaptively learns a sparse dictionary based on the incoming observations, and monitors validity of the dictionary based on a proposed metric in RKHS. In order to mitigate the time-varying VLC channel based on this metric, a criterion for clearing the contents of the existing dictionary is proposed, and the requirement to learn a new dictionary is detected. Furthermore, the concept of mixture-adaptive kernel learning is introduced in this work for the minimum symbol error rate (MSER) criterion. From the convergence analysis presented in this paper, faster mean squared error (MSE) convergence is proved for the mixture-kernel based post-distorter. Additionally, it is also proven that for a given step-size, the proposed mixture-kernel MSER post-distorter always converges to a lower MSE as compared to the classical single-kernel MSER. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the performance limits of underwater visible light communication (UVLC) systems. We first develop a closed-form path loss expression as a function of transceiver parameters and water type. We then utilize this new expression to determine the maximum achievable link distance for UVLC systems in pure sea, clear ocean, coastal water, and harbor water. Our results demonstrate that the maximum achievable distance is limited to a few tens of meters. This necessitates the deployment of relay-assisted UVLC systems to extend the transmission range. We consider both detect-and-forward and amplify-and-forward relaying. For each relaying method, we first consider a dual-hop UVLC system and determine optimal relay placement to minimize the bit error rate (BER). Then, we consider a multi-hop system with equidistant relays and determine the maximum achievable distance for a given number of hops to satisfy a targeted end-to-end BER. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a unified resource allocation and mobility management algorithm based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) for indoor visible light communication (VLC) networks. We consider a VLC network where multiple LEDs serve as access points (APs). A centralized controller collects channel state information, quality of service requirements of the users, and the overload status of the APs. Based on the available information, in each time interval, the controller decides which user is served by which AP and assigns subcarriers to the users with the objective of maximizing both the system throughput and user satisfaction. We formulate the resource allocation problem as a constrained nonlinear integer programming problem and solve it using meta-heuristic PSO. Through an extensive simulation study, the superiority of the proposed algorithm in terms of system throughput and user satisfaction over round robin, best channel quality information, and genetic algorithms is demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose an adaptive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) free-space optical (FSO) system with dynamic adaptation between spatial modes of operation. The proposed adaptive system supports three MIMO modes. In the spatial multiplexing mode, the system transmits independent parallel data streams over multiple apertures to increase data rate. In diversity mode, the system transmits coded streams through multiple apertures to extract diversity gains. In hybrid mode, a trade-off between diversity and multiplexing gains is targeted. For each operation mode, we first derive the outage probability for the MIMO FSO system over log-normal turbulence channels. Then, we formulate the design of an adaptive FSO system to select the MIMO mode that yields the highest throughput while satisfying a predefined target outage probability. Extensive numerical results are provided to demonstrate the performance of the proposed adaptive scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visible light communications (VLC) is a promising and uncharted new technology for the next generation of wireless communication systems. This paper proposes a novel generalized light emitting diode (LED) index modulation method for multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based VLC systems. The proposed scheme avoids the typical spectrum efficiency losses incurred by time- and frequency-domain shaping in OFDM signals. This is achieved by exploiting spatial multiplexing along with LED index modulation. Accordingly, real and imaginary components of the complex time-domain OFDM signals are separated first, then resulting bipolar signals are transmitted over a VLC channel by encoding sign information in LED indexes. As a benchmark, we demonstrate the performance analysis of our proposed system for both analytical and physical channel models. Furthermore, two novel receiver designs are proposed. Each one is suitable for frequency-flat or selective channel scenarios. It has been shown via extensive computer simulations that the proposed scheme achieves considerably better bit error ratio versus signal-to-noise-ratio performance than the existing VLC-MIMO-OFDM systems that use the same number of transmit and receive units [LEDs and photo diodes (PDs)]. Compared with the single-input single-output (SISO) DC biased optical (DCO)-OFDM system, both spectral efficiency and DC bias can be doubled and removed respectively simply by exploiting a MIMO configuration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we investigate cooperative visible light communication (VLC) system where an intermediate light source acts as a relay terminal. We assume that relay terminal operates in full-duplex mode. In contrast to radio frequency counterparts, full-duplex VLC terminal is relatively easier to implement due to directive propagation characteristic of light. We first model VLC relay terminal taking into account loop interference channel based on ray tracing simulations. Then, we investigate error rate performance of the relay-assisted VLC system. Our performance evaluations demonstrate the superiority of full-duplex relaying over half-duplex counterpart especially for high modulation sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this letter, we propose a realistic channel model for visible light communication (VLC) assuming a mobile user. Based on non-sequential ray tracing, we first obtain channel impulse responses for each point over the user movement trajectories, and then express path loss and delay spread as a function of distance through curve fitting. Our results demonstrate large variations in received power. In system design, this necessitates the use of adaptive schemes, where transmission parameters can be selected according to channel conditions. To demonstrate the benefits of link adaptation over a mobile VLC channel, we propose an adaptive system with luminary selection and demonstrate improvements in spectral efficiency over non-adaptive systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Network-coded cooperation (NCC) is an effective method to improve the throughput efficiency in cooperative wireless networks. The combined use of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with NCC has been further studied in the literature to exploit the multipath diversity gains. In this paper, we consider orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), an extension of OFDM to a multiuser system where subsets of carriers are assigned to different users. We first derive a closed-form expression for the outage probability of NCC-OFDMA over Rician fading channels and then present the asymptotical and finite-SNR DMT expressions. Our results provide insight into the performance mechanisms under practical SNR regime of NCC-OFDMA systems and demonstrate that NCC-OFDMA is able to fully exploit both frequency and spatial diversity. We also show that the derived finite-SNR DMT converges to an asymptotical one as expected. Furthermore, special cases for our derived analytical expressions are presented, to show that the derived expression is a generalized case of the related the state of the art results. Simulation results are further presented to verify our theoretical analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The IEEE has established the standardization group 802.15.7r1 ?Short Range Optical Wireless Communications?, which is currently in the process of developing a standard for visible light communication (VLC). As with any other communication system, realistic channel models are of critical importance for VLC system design, performance evaluation, and testing. This article presents the reference channel models that were endorsed by the IEEE 802.15.7r1 Task Group for evaluation of VLC system proposals. These were developed for typical indoor environments, including home, office, and manufacturing cells. While highlighting the channel models, we further discuss physical layer techniques potentially considered for IEEE 802.15.7r1. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Ultraviolet (UV) communication enables non-line-of-sight (NLOS) outdoor wireless connectivity and is particularly desirable to relax or eliminate pointing and tracking requirements of infrared links. In comparison to infrared counterparts, UV links are subject to relatively higher path loss as well as intersymbol interference resulting from frequency selective nature of the channel. In this paper, we propose the powerful combination of relay-assisted transmission and multi-carrier architecture based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). Specifically, we consider a cooperative diversity system with orthogonal cooperation protocol and use DC-biased optical OFDM as the underlying physical layer. We consider both amplify-and-forward (AF) and detect-and-forward (DF) relaying. We investigate the error rate performance of the proposed relay-assisted OFDM UV system under consideration and demonstrate performance gains over point-to-point OFDM UV systems. We further determine optimal power allocation schemes to improve the performance. We also propose a variable-rate UV OFDM system and improve system throughput via bit loading. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Ultraviolet (UV) communication enables non-line-of-sight (NLOS) outdoor wireless connectivity and is particularly desirable for relaxing or eliminating pointing and tracking requirements of infrared links. In the current literature, atmospheric turbulence effects are typically ignored under the assumption of short link distances. In this paper, we consider a multi-hop UV system with decode-and-forward relaying and analyze its performance in the presence of log-normal (LN) turbulence. Specifically, we assume that each NLOS link consists of two line-of-sight (LOS) paths, each of which experience LN distributed fading.We first obtain a closed-form expression for the statistical distribution of turbulence-induced fading in NLOS UV links. Then we obtain the outage probability of the multi-hop UV system and quantify diversity gain as a function of system and channel parameters. Our results show that, with proper choice of these parameters, the turbulence variance for the NLOS link can be lower than that of the LOS link. This in turn yields higher-diversity gains. We also present numerical results to confirm the accuracy of our derivations and discuss the effect of several system parameters on the outage probability and diversity gain. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Free-space optical (FSO) communication is known for its various impairments such as atmospheric turbulence and misalignment fading. In this paper, we study the performance of an FSO link operating under combined path loss and atmospheric and misalignment fadings. We derive a closed-form expression for the bit error rate (BER) of the FSO link in such conditions when the on-off keying (OOK) modulation is employed and when the fluctuations of the received signal are modeled by Gamma- Gamma distribution. In addition, we evaluate the effects of the combined fadings on the outage probability of the FSO link for different strengths of turbulence and pointing errors. Furthermore, we investigate the advantages of combining radio frequency (RF) with FSO to form hybrid FSO/ RF systems. The RF link is based on 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM) and on Rician channel fading. We study the performance of the hybrid FSO/RF system in terms of outage probability and BER and find that the hybrid FSO/RF system can overcome the weaknesses of FSO links, which are sensitive to atmospheric variations and misalignment fading. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]