TY - GEN
T1 - An indoor hybrid WiFi-VLC internet access system
AU - Shao, Sihua
AU - Khreishah, Abdallah
AU - Rahaim, Michael B.
AU - Elgala, Hany
AU - Ayyash, Moussa
AU - Little, Thomas D.C.
AU - Wu, Jie
PY - 2015/2/6
Y1 - 2015/2/6
N2 - Visible light communications (VLC) is emerging as a new alternative to the use of the existing and increasingly crowded radio frequency (RF) spectrum. VLC is unlicensed, has wide bandwidth, supports new levels of security due to the opacity of walls, and can be combined to provide both lighting and data communications for little net increase in energy cost. As part of a lighting system, VLC is ideal as a downlink technology in which data are delivered from overhead luminaries to receivers in the lighting field. However, realizing a symmetric optical channel is problematic because most receivers, such as mobile devices, are ill-suited for an optical uplink due to glare, device orientation, energy constraints. In this paper we propose and implement a hybrid solution in which the uplink challenge is resolved by the use of an asymmetric RF-VLC combination. VLC is used as a downlink, RF is used as an uplink, and the hybrid solution realizes full duplex communication without performance glare or throughput degradation expected in an all-VLC-based approach. Our proposed approach utilizes a software defined VLC platform (SDVLC) to implement the unidirectional optical wireless channel and a WiFi link as the back-channel. Experiments with the implemented prototype reveal that the integrated system outperforms conventional WiFi for crowded (congested) multiuser environments in term of throughput, and demonstrate functional access to full-duplex interactive applications such as web browsing with HTTP.
AB - Visible light communications (VLC) is emerging as a new alternative to the use of the existing and increasingly crowded radio frequency (RF) spectrum. VLC is unlicensed, has wide bandwidth, supports new levels of security due to the opacity of walls, and can be combined to provide both lighting and data communications for little net increase in energy cost. As part of a lighting system, VLC is ideal as a downlink technology in which data are delivered from overhead luminaries to receivers in the lighting field. However, realizing a symmetric optical channel is problematic because most receivers, such as mobile devices, are ill-suited for an optical uplink due to glare, device orientation, energy constraints. In this paper we propose and implement a hybrid solution in which the uplink challenge is resolved by the use of an asymmetric RF-VLC combination. VLC is used as a downlink, RF is used as an uplink, and the hybrid solution realizes full duplex communication without performance glare or throughput degradation expected in an all-VLC-based approach. Our proposed approach utilizes a software defined VLC platform (SDVLC) to implement the unidirectional optical wireless channel and a WiFi link as the back-channel. Experiments with the implemented prototype reveal that the integrated system outperforms conventional WiFi for crowded (congested) multiuser environments in term of throughput, and demonstrate functional access to full-duplex interactive applications such as web browsing with HTTP.
KW - Heterogeneous Network (HetNet)
KW - Hybrid system
KW - Internet
KW - LiFi
KW - Optical Wireless (OW)
KW - Software Defined Radio (SDR)
KW - Visible Light Communications (VLC)
KW - WiFi
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84925353277&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84925353277&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/MASS.2014.76
DO - 10.1109/MASS.2014.76
M3 - Conference contribution
T3 - Proceedings - 11th IEEE International Conference on Mobile Ad Hoc and Sensor Systems, MASS 2014
SP - 569
EP - 574
BT - Proceedings - 11th IEEE International Conference on Mobile Ad Hoc and Sensor Systems, MASS 2014
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 11th IEEE International Conference on Mobile Ad Hoc and Sensor Systems, MASS 2014
Y2 - 28 October 2014 through 30 October 2014
ER -