Search

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]