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Electronics
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Visible Light Communications Technology and Its Applications
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Visible Light Communications Technology and Its Applications

A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Microwave and Wireless Communications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 October 2021) | Viewed by 12344

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Jose Alberto Rabadan Borges

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Instituto Universitario para el Desarrollo Tecnológico y la Innovación en Comunicaciones (IDeTIC), Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas, Spain
Interests: optical wireless communications; VLC/OCC
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Victor Guerra

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Pi Lighting Sarl, 1950 Sion, Switzerland
2. IDeTIC, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), 35017 Las Palmas, Spain
Interests: optical wireless communication; underwater wireless optical communication; optical camera communication
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Julio Francisco Rufo Torres

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Departamento de Ingeniería Industrial, Universidad de La Laguna, 38200 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Spain
Interests: optical camera communication; visible light communications; spectral signature multiplexing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Visible light communication (VLC) has been presented as a promising technology for indoor and outdoor mobile networks, providing high bandwidth and unregulated spectrum use, among other interesting capabilities. Visible LEDs (white LEDs or RGB LEDs) are included not only in the new solid-state illumination systems (LED lamps) but in many COST devices, such as smartphones or laptops. These illumination devices and their ubiquity are the reason behind the development of VLC, since they are capable of transmitting data at rates which are high enough to support different services and application demands (from low/medium to high data rates). In the same way, digital camera evolution and implantation has led to the creation of optical camera communications (OCC), a new VLC subset which uses these image devices as optical receivers.

The relevance of and interest in the VLC systems are demonstrated through the several standards already published or in the process of being published on this issue in recent years, such as IEEE 802.15.7 and IEEE 802.15.13, or the ITU G.9991. Those standards deal with the different aspects and applications of VLC systems, considering MAC and physical layers for low-, medium-, and high-speed links; and capabilities such as illumination control, indoor localization or vehicle communications, among others.

The main aim of this Special Issue is to provide original and high-quality papers addressing both theoretical and practical aspects of system development in this area. It will highlight the latest research and innovative applications and provide new perspectives on future initiatives and challenges.

The topics of interest include but are not limited to:

  • Diversity/MIMO technique implementation;
  • VLP systems;
  • Underwater VLC systems;
  • Machine learning strategies for VLC/OCC;
  • Electronic circuits for modulation/demodulation;
  • Energy-efficient/energy-harvesting VLC systems;
  • Efficient driver and receiver design, noise characterization;
  • V2X/IoT/Smart city systems;
  • New applications of VLC/OCC systems

Prof. Dr. Jose A. Rabadan
Dr. Victor Guerra
Dr. Julio Rufo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Electronics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

25 pages, 10278 KiB  
Article
Testbed for Experimental Characterization of Indoor Visible Light Communication Channels
by Miqueas Fortes and Oswaldo González
Electronics 2021, 10(11), 1365; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10111365 - 07 Jun 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1772
Abstract
In this paper, we describe an experimental testbed designed to evaluate indoor visible light communications (VLC) in realistic scenarios. The system is based on a mockup where the location and orientation of the optical receiver can be modified with precision for a static [...] Read more.
In this paper, we describe an experimental testbed designed to evaluate indoor visible light communications (VLC) in realistic scenarios. The system is based on a mockup where the location and orientation of the optical receiver can be modified with precision for a static configuration of walls and ceiling lamp arrangements. The system utilizes a timing synchronization method, which is based on evaluating the training sequence periods used for channel response estimation, which enables robust frame synchronization. In addition, an adaptive rate orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) scheme is used to assess the VLC performance throughout the receiver plane emulating a real communication. The preliminary results obtained with this prototype, considering a multiple-input single-output (MISO) scenario, demonstrate that reflection on walls yields a significant increase in data rates, which can be additionally improved if appropriate orientation of the receiver is implemented. However, vertical orientation upward of the optical receiver still constitutes a simple solution but efficient enough. Moreover, a good agreement between simulation and experimental results is observed, which confirms the suitability of the mockup as an experimental testbed for practical evaluation of indoor VLC systems, where system performance for different lamp arrangements and receiver designs, including multi-user communications, can be studied. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Visible Light Communications Technology and Its Applications)
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26 pages, 1398 KiB  
Article
Flickering-Free Distance-Independent Modulation Scheme for OCC
by Patricia Chavez-Burbano, Jose Rabadan, Victor Guerra and Rafael Perez-Jimenez
Electronics 2021, 10(9), 1103; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10091103 - 08 May 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1712
Abstract
Communications for IoT sensor networks in Smart City applications are demanding new technologies to avoid the radio frequency spectrum saturation and support the massive nodes situation required in this kind of network. Visible Light Communications are gaining interest as an alternative scheme for [...] Read more.
Communications for IoT sensor networks in Smart City applications are demanding new technologies to avoid the radio frequency spectrum saturation and support the massive nodes situation required in this kind of network. Visible Light Communications are gaining interest as an alternative scheme for solving this problem. In particular, Optical Camera Communication (OCC) takes advantage of the presence of cameras in a wide range of devices (smartphones, surveillance systems). Several transmission and modulation schemes, specifically developed for OCC, have been proposed but they present different problems as the communication range, the flickering effects in the transmitted signal, or the system complexity. In this work, an Optical Camera Communication modulation scheme that addresses the considerable variability of the transmitter–receiver distance is proposed. As will be shown, the modulation scheme works properly independently of this separation for a wide range of distances. Additionally, it performs a flickering free transmission to avoid undesired blinking effects for humans and uses a simplified transmission and reception scheme, reducing the system complexity and cost. Results of the modulation’s performance for short (<20 m), medium (20–60 m), and long (>60 m) ranges are presented in the paper, showing a 16 bps transmission rate with Bit Error Rate below the Forward Error Correction (FEC) limit (3.8 · 10−3). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Visible Light Communications Technology and Its Applications)
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8 pages, 2829 KiB  
Article
Optical Filter-Less WDM for Visible Light Communications Using Defocused MIMO
by Andrew Burton, Petr Chvojka, Paul Anthony Haigh, Zabih Ghassemlooy and Stanislav Zvanovec
Electronics 2021, 10(9), 1065; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10091065 - 30 Apr 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 1862
Abstract
This paper experimentally investigates, for the first time, a new wavelength-division multiplexing-based visible light communications link based on a defocused non-imaging multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), which removes the need for tuned optical bandpass filters paired with each receiver. The proposed system is based on [...] Read more.
This paper experimentally investigates, for the first time, a new wavelength-division multiplexing-based visible light communications link based on a defocused non-imaging multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), which removes the need for tuned optical bandpass filters paired with each receiver. The proposed system is based on using the natural diversity of the individual light emitting diodes (LEDs) within a single light source to generate an H-matrix, which is independent of spatial diversity. We show that, by transmitting K-independent sets of non-return to zero on-and-off keying signals on separate wavelengths, the received superposed symbols can be demultiplexed. The non-imaging MIMO diversity is achieved by considering the power-current characteristics of the light emitting diode, the responsivity of the photodetector array, and the defocused beam spot. The system is empirically verified for K = 3 using red, green, and blue LEDs with Q-factors of 7.66, 7.69, and 4.75 dB, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Visible Light Communications Technology and Its Applications)
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14 pages, 5929 KiB  
Article
An ANN-Based Adaptive Predistorter for LED Nonlinearity in Indoor Visible Light Communications
by Jenn-Kaie Lain and Yan-He Chen
Electronics 2021, 10(8), 948; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10080948 - 16 Apr 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 1612
Abstract
By modulating the optical power of the light-emitting diode (LED) in accordance with the electrical source and using a photodetector to convert the corresponding optical variation back into electrical signals, visible light communication (VLC) has been developed to achieve lighting and communications simultaneously, [...] Read more.
By modulating the optical power of the light-emitting diode (LED) in accordance with the electrical source and using a photodetector to convert the corresponding optical variation back into electrical signals, visible light communication (VLC) has been developed to achieve lighting and communications simultaneously, and is now considered one of the promising technologies for handling the continuing increases in data demands, especially indoors, for next generation wireless broadband systems. During the process of electrical-to-optical conversion using LEDs in VLC, however, signal distortion occurs due to LED nonlinearity, resulting in VLC system performance degradation. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are thought to be capable of achieving universal function approximation, which was the motivation for introducing ANN predistortion to compensate for LED nonlinearity in this paper. Without using additional training sequences, the related parameters in the proposed ANN predistorter can be adaptively updated, using a feedback replica of the original electrical source, to track the LED time-variant characteristics due to temperature variation and aging. Computer simulations and experimental implementation were carried out to evaluate and validate the performance of the proposed ANN predistorter against existing adaptive predistorter schemes, such as the normalized least mean square predistorter and the Chebyshev polynomial predistorter. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Visible Light Communications Technology and Its Applications)
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15 pages, 2848 KiB  
Article
Spectral Domain-Based Data-Embedding Mechanisms for Display-to-Camera Communication
by Lakpa Dorje Tamang and Byung Wook Kim
Electronics 2021, 10(4), 468; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10040468 - 15 Feb 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2008
Abstract
Recently, digital displays and cameras have been extensively used as new data transmission and reception devices in conjunction with optical camera communication (OCC) technology. This paper presents three types of frequency-based data-embedding mechanisms for a display-to-camera (D2C) communication system, in which a commercial [...] Read more.
Recently, digital displays and cameras have been extensively used as new data transmission and reception devices in conjunction with optical camera communication (OCC) technology. This paper presents three types of frequency-based data-embedding mechanisms for a display-to-camera (D2C) communication system, in which a commercial digital display transmits information and an off-the-shelf smartphone camera receives it. For the spectral embedding, sub-band coefficients obtained from a discrete cosine transform (DCT) image and predetermined embedding factors of three embedding mechanisms are used. This allows the data to be recovered from several types of noises induced in wireless optical channels, such as analog-to-digital (A/D) and digital-to-analog (D/A) conversion, rotation, scaling, and translation (RST) effects, while also maintaining the image quality to normal human eyes. We performed extensive simulations and real-world D2C experiments using several performance metrics. Through the analysis of the experimental results, it was shown that the proposed method can be considered as a suitable candidate for the D2C system in terms of the achievable data rate (ADR), peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), and the bit error rate (BER). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Visible Light Communications Technology and Its Applications)
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20 pages, 2771 KiB  
Article
Effect of Temperature on Channel Compensation in Optical Camera Communication
by Daniel Moreno, Julio Rufo, Victor Guerra, Jose Rabadan and Rafael Perez-Jimenez
Electronics 2021, 10(3), 262; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10030262 - 22 Jan 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2445
Abstract
General-purpose Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) sensors perform the image desegregation in three channels (red, green, and blue) as a result of a band-pass wavelength filtering carried out using Foveon or Bayer filters. This characteristic can be used in Optical Camera Communication (OCC) [...] Read more.
General-purpose Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) sensors perform the image desegregation in three channels (red, green, and blue) as a result of a band-pass wavelength filtering carried out using Foveon or Bayer filters. This characteristic can be used in Optical Camera Communication (OCC) systems for increasing the links’ data rate by introducing Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) or Color Shift Keying (CSK) modulation schemes. However, these techniques need a compensation stage to mitigate the cross-talk between channels introduced by the filters. This compensation is performed by a Channel State Information (CSI) estimation and a zero-forcing compensation scheme. The impact of the temperature effects of light-emitting diode (LED) emissions on the zero-forcing compensation scheme’s performance has not been analyzed in depth. This work presents a comprehensive methodology and experimental characterization of this impact for Foveon and Bayer-based image sensors, assuming that the CSI is estimated under temperature conditions different from the LED’s stationary temperature regime. Besides, Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio (SINR) and Bit Error Rate (BER) performance metrics are presented in order to estimate the repercussion in an OCC link. The results reveal that the Foveon sensor obtains more unsatisfactory performance than the Bayer-based sensor. On the other hand, the blue band is the most penalized by the thermal effect. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Visible Light Communications Technology and Its Applications)
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