Channel Model and Modulation Schemes for
Visible Light Communications
Kwonhyung Lee and Hyuncheol Park
Department of Electrical Engineering, KAIST
291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Korea
Email: trabant@kaist.ac.kr and hcpark@ee.kaist.ac.kr
Abstract- We present indoor multipath dispersion character­
istics for visible light communications (VLC). We generalize
the conventional ray-tracing model by including wavelength­
dependent white LED characteristics and spectral reflectance
of indoor reflectors. We perform a computer simulation to
compare the power delay profile of the VLC with that of
infrared communications. The VLC uses solid-state lightings to
transmit information; therefore it is necessary that modulation
schemes for the VLC provide dimming control. We consider
several modulation schemes to offer both functions of modulating
data-stream and controlling the brightness at the same time.
We analyze communication performance in terms of power
requirement and spectral efficiency.
I. INTRODUCT ION
Visible light co mmunications (VLC) is a fusion technology
of solid-state lightings and wireless communications. The
VLC is one of the green consumer electronic technologies
considering lack of fossil fuel and global climate changes.
The VLC uses LED lighting fixtures to transmit information;
hence the visible lights can provide both illumination and
communication.
We characterize the VLC channel, and derive required
power and spectral efficiency of VLC modulations with respect
to a dimming level. Section II presents a theoretical model
for multipath propagation considering both an optical source,
which emits optical power over all visible spectrum and the
spectral reflectance of indoor material. In order to describe
the model of VLC channel, we measure the spectral power
distribution of LED lighting and the spectral reflectance of
indoor materials. We perform a computer simulation to com­
pare the power delay profile of the VLC with that of infrared
communications. Moreover, dimming control is mandatory for
LED lighting. The VLC uses LED lighting as a transmitter.
Hence, the VLC system must take into account modulation
schemes having functions such as non-flickering and dimming
control. In Section III, we derive communication performance
in terms of the power requirement and spectral efficiency;
moreover, we compare them with respect to the dimming
level of an LED lighting. Finally, we conclude the paper by
summarizing main results in Section IV.
II. INDOOR CHANNEL CHARACT ERIST ICS FOR THE VLC
In the VLC, LED bulbs convert electrical signals to optical
power, and a photodiode gathers optical signals that have
undergone one or more reflections from ceiling, walls, and
other objects in a room. Multipath propagations due to many
reflections cause time spreading of the received signal, and the
power delay profile (PDP) can be used to analyze the effect
of multipath dispersion between transmitter and receiver.
Several results about the VLC channel, based on the re­
cursive algorithm, are presented [1] [2] where constant value
of reflectance was used for all wavelengths as in the infrared
communications. However, little attention has been given to
the reflectance in the visible spectrum. Few attempts have been
made to observe the features of power spectral distribution of
reflected LED light and spectral reflectance of indoor finishing
materials.
We extend the recursive algorithm of [3] to account for the
wideband nature of the visible light and for the wavelength­
dependent nature of reflectors. The extended algorithm is used
to compute the PDP for phosphor based white LED lighting,
and to compare the differences of channel characteristics
between the VLC and the infrared communications.
A. Spectral Power Distribution and Spectral Reflectance
1) Spectral Power Distribution: Spectral power distribution
(SPD), denoted ([l('x), describes the variation of the spectral
concentration of a radiometric quantity with wavelengths.
We perform a basic measurement using spectroradiometer
(Konica Minolta: CS-I000) to evaluate the SPD of LED
lighting. Fig. 1 illustrates the SPD of phosphor type white
LED. Phosphor conversion LED uses a phosphor material to
convert monochromatic light from a blue or ultraviolet LED
to a broad spectrum for white light [4].
2) Spectral Reflectance: In indoor environments, the re­
ceived optical signal experiences time dispersion due to the
reflections from walls and other objects. Although the specular
reflections can occur from a mirror or other shiny object, most
reflections are typically diffuse in nature, and most are well­
modeled as Lambertian [3]. We assume that interior materials
or indoor fixtures are purely diffusive.
Spectral reflectance, denoted p('x), is the reflectivity varying
its value as a function of wavelength. We have measured the
spectral reflectance of some building materials by using a
spectrophotometer (Konica Minolta: CM-2500d). The spec­
tral reflectances are also illustrated in Fig 1. Each reflector
has distinct spectral reflectance, and each reflectance ranges
between 0.1 and 0.8 as the wavelength changes. In general,
the reflectivity of the infrared band is higher than that of the
visible band.
978-1-61284-857-0/11/$26.00 (92011 IEEE
 LED
O,2 ,--,---�--�-�--�---,
Bk '..r!
I ....k
0,18 0,9 k,th
Plaster wall ¢o\ refiector
0,16
First \
refiector \ do
¢ \
0,14 0,7 .... <' ,
Floor .... \ Bo
-
---- --
---------- ........ d, \_
0,12 ---
........ B, �_
o /" fill'
.... " .... -"\
� 0,1 " \
w
i' Ceiling
, '- ' "
,
0,08 i/ " " " " " " " , ." , .,,', , ,,,,,,.
. "
0,06
,t ,.' ,, ' "
,: " .".
' Photodiode (PD)
i: ,'''.
0,04 0,2
i
,: '

0, 02 :/
, 0,1 Fig. 2. Geometry of the LED and a PD with reflectors.
O ���-L--L---L--�-�--��- O
400 450 500 550 600 650 700
wavelength [nm)
the speed of light, and rect(x ) is the rectangular function:
Fig. 1. The SPD (solid line, which corresponds to the left axis) is compared
to the measured spectral reflectance (which corresponds to the right axis) of
plaster and plastic wall (dash-dot line), floor (dash line), and ceiling (dot line),
rect(x) = {� -1 ::;
otherwise.
x ::; 1,
(3)

Let r(k) in (2) denote the power of reflected ray after k­

B. MUltipath Dispersion for Wideband Optical Source bounces, and it is a modified term for the VLC:

1) Proposed Scheme: To describe the power of reflected

light for the VLC, we propose a method that includes both
r(k) = 1 �('x)Pl('x)P2('x)··· Pk('x)d'x k ? 1. (4)

the SPD of an optical source and the spectral reflectance of a

The PDP for line-of-sight (LOS) is
reflector. The PDP due to multiple bounces is

h(t) =
00

L h(k)(t) , (1)
h(O) = Lo rect ( F�V ) (t - d: ) 1 �('x)d'x,
<5 (5)

k=O where

where h(k)(t) is an impulse response after k bounces: L0- Apo(m + 1) cosm ¢o cos 00
_

27rd5
h(k)(t) = is [LlL2 "
k( :�� )
' Lk+lr( )rect x 2) Simulation Results: We evaluate the PDP to verify
the effect of the wavelength-dependent variability of the re­
d2 : ...dk+! ]
<5 (t - dl +
) dA e 1, r f k? (2) flectance. We consider multipath environment in an empty
room. The indoor topology for simulation is a cubic room (5.0
where m x 5.0 m x 3.0 m). An LED (2¢l/2 120 0 ) is located on =

the center of the ceiling (2.5 m, 2.5 m, 3.0 m), and a photo­
Aref(m + 1) cosm ¢l cos (h detector is located on the comer of the floor (0.5 m, 1.0 m, 0.0
27rdi m) pointing upward. The FOV and the area of a photodiode
Aref cos ¢2 cos (h (Apo) are 85 0 and 1 cm2, respectively. The bin width of the
7rd� power histogram is .6.t 0.2 ns. =

Apo cos ¢k+l cos Ok+!
7rd%+l
represent path-loss terms for each path. The integration in (2)
is performed with respect to the surface S of all reflectors,
and Aref is the area of the reflecting element. The mode
number of a radiation lobe, m -1/log2(coS¢1/2), is a
measure of the directivity of the light beam, and related to the
viewing angle (2¢1/2) of an LED. The angles of irradiance
To compare the VLC with the infrared communication, we
assumed that 1 W optical power is transmitted for both cases.
Two types of walls are considered; plaster and plastic. The
measured data of the spectral reflectance (see Fig. 1) is used
for the VLC simulation, and extrapolated value at 800 nm
(floor: 0.63, ceiling: 0040, plaster wall: 0.83, and plastic wall:
= 0.48) is used for the case of infrared communication.
The simulation results for received optical power accounting
for up to three-bounces (k 3) are given in Table I. The power
=

and incidence are written by ¢k and Ok respectively, and dk is from LOS light for all the cases is 1.232 JLW. For the infrared
the distance between source and destination as shown in Fig. case, the received power from reflected paths tends to add to
2. The photodiode detects light whose angle of incidence is a significant amount [3] regardless of the type of the indoor
less than the field of view (FOV). The constant term of cis walls. However, for the VLC case, the received power from
 TABLE I TABLE II
SIMULATION RESULTS FOR SINGLE OPTICAL SOURCE. VOOK AND V PPM CODEWORDS.

Received power [JLW] VOOK VPPM

Infrared VLC codeword codeword
'"Y 0 Od codeword
Plaster walls Plastic walls Plaster walls Plastic walls for bit one for bit zero
k=l 0.524 0.303 0.467 0.063 0.9 0.9 0.2 dd11111111 1111111110 0111111111
k=2 0.496 0.260 0.211 0.015 0.8 0.8 0.4 ddddllllll 1111111100 0011111111
k=3 0.241 0.087 0.107 0.003 0.7 0.7 0.6 ddddddllll 1111111000 0001111111
Total 1.261 0.650 0.785 0.081 0.6 0.6 0.8 ddddddddll 1111110000 0000111111
Time dispersion parameters [ns] 0.5 0.5 1.0 dddddddddd 1111100000 0000011111
T 18.78 16.44 16.42 13.20 0.4 0.4 0.8 ddddddddOO 1111000000 0000001111
(Tr 8.34 6.52 6.20 0.56 0.3 0.3 0.6 ddddddOOOO 1110000000 0000000111
0.2 0.2 0.4 ddddOOOOOO 1100000000 0000000011
0.1 0.1 0.2 ddOOOOOOOO 1000000000 0000000001

reflected paths is smaller than that of the infrared case, and it

largely depends on building materials. A. Modulation Schemes for the VLC
It is known that the temporal dispersion can be expressed
1) Retum-to-zero OaK: Basic modulation techniques such
by the channel root mean square (RMS) delay spread that
as on-off keying (OOK) and pulse position modulation (PPM)
affects the channel bandwidth, and mitigating the reflections
have been widely studied in optical wireless communications.
decreases the RMS delay spread [5]. The time dispersion
Simply stated, an OOK transmitter sends a optical pulse of
parameters are calculated with the truncation length (Ttr),
T
which can be calculated by fo tr h(t)dt 0.97 fooo h(t)dt.
symbol duration T and of intensity 2P to signify a bit one,
and no optical pulse of the duration T to signify a bit zero.
=

The mean excess delay (7) and the RMS delay spread (aT )
Under equiprobable input condition, non-retum-to-zero (NRZ­
are listed at the bottom of Table I. For single optical source,
OOK) can provide 50 % brightness; therefore, it should not
the RMS delay spread of the VLC case is smaller than that
provide the dimming control. On the other hand, retum-to­
of the infrared case because of weak power from reflected
zero OOK (RZ-OOK) can control the brightness by varying
paths. These results show that the VLC can provide a larger
the duty cycle:
transmission bandwidth.
(8)
III. MODULATION SCHEME FOR D IMMING CONTROL
where Ton is the amount of time that the pulse is on, and
The VLC uses LED lighting as a transmitter, and dimming T is the symbol duration. We define the dimming factor of
control is mandatory for LED lighting; hence VLC system RZ-OOK as
must take into account modulation scheme that should provide
o 1
dimming control. 0< 'Irz-ook :::; (9)
2 2'
=

Optical wireless communications, including the VLC, use

Od
2) Variable OaK: In variable OOK (VOOK) [6], the
intensity-modulation and direct-detection (IMlDD). Intensity­
brightness is controlled by varying the data duty cycle, denoted
modulation is obtained by varying the bias current of LEDs.
A photodetector in a direct-detection receiver produces a
=¥, where Td is the amount of time that the data pulse is
on. The inactive portions of duty cycle are filled with the filler
photocurrent that is proportional to the optical power incident
bits with either ones or zeros according to the dimming factor.
upon it. Let x(t) and yet) denote the transmitted and received
VOOK provides a brightness with Pr { d O} Pr{d 1}

{!Od !Od
= = = =
optical signals, respectively. When the channel has impulse
0.5:
response h(t), the received signal is
_ 0< 'I:::; 0.5,
'Ivook (10)
yet) = 1: x(T)h(t - T)dT + net), (6) - 1 _ 0.5:::; 'I < 1.
Table II lists VOOK codewords, where zeros or ones are filler
where net) is an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). It bits. It also should note that data can not be transmitted when
should be noted that x(t) represents optical power from LED
'Ivook =0 or 1.
lightings, not amplitude, and thus it must satisfy [3]: 3) Variable PPM: In L-PPM, each symbol duration T
is partitioned into L sub-intervals, and the transmitter sends
x(t) ;::: 0 and lim
l
-
i T x(t)dt :::; 'IP, (7) only one optical pulse during single sub-interval. Thus, the
T-+oo T 0
information is sent in the position of the pulse. Although PPM
where P is an average power when an optical source has a full is widely used in the optical wireless communication system,
brightness, and 0:::; 'I:::; 1 is a dimming factor. The brightness it is not suitable for the VLC, because it is difficult to control
depends on the LED lighting's dimming factor and the average the brightness of LED lighting as NRZ-OOK.
optical power. For example, if an LED lighting is under full Recently, variable PPM (VPPM) has been proposed [7].
brightness b 1) and 50 % brightness b 0.5), then the
= = VPPM is a combination of PWM for dimming control and 2-
average power of x(t) is P and 0.5P, respectively. PPM (L =2) for data transmission. Since VPPM is a variant
 TABLE III 10 ,---�--�--,
REQUIRED POWER AND SPECTRAL EFFICIENCY. ill
12. 8
C
�
"

Power requirement Spectral efficiency 6

J2�
·5
RZ-OOK 0<, :::; 0.5 2, 0<, :::; 0.5 � 4

�iii
VOOK /� 0<, :::; 0.5 2, 0<, :::; 0.5 2

$ 0.5:::;, < 1 {2(1-,) 0.5:::;,< 1 ����������

0. 1 0.2 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9

VPPM 'j} 0<, :::; 0,5 0<, :::; 0.5

.$ 0.5:::;, < 1 {? -, 0.5:::;, < 1

of 2-PPM, only one bit of information is carrying during

one symbol duration. Moreover, VPPM signals are hard to
transmit information when the lighting is under full brightness Dimming factor y
as VOOK signals. The dimming factor of VPPM is
Fig. 3. Power requirement and spectral efficiency.
o< 'Yvppm = 8 < 1. (11)

Table II also lists VPPM codewords for bit one and bit zero,
respectively. Note that for VPPM, the data duty cycle is equal
to the duty cycle (8 = 8d) unlike for VOOK.
B. Power Requirement and Spectral Efficiency
We compare the power requirement and spectral efficiency
with respect to the dimming factor. First, the power require­
ment is a measure that how much power is needed to achieve
a given bit error rate (BER), at a given bit rate. To sim­
plify analysis, we make the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)
assumption that the BER is dominated by the nearest two
signals. Accordingly, the equivalent BER is well approximated
in AWGN [8]: Q (� ) , where dmin is the minimum Euclidean
distance between any pair of valid signals. We use NRZ-OOK
as a benchmark to compare the power requirement of various
modulation schemes. The normalized power requirement by
each modulation scheme to achieve the same BER is approx­
imately
IV. CONCLUSION
A new approach has been proposed to calculate the accurate
PDP for the VLC. We have analyzed the indoor multipath dis­
persion characteristics by considering the spectral reflectance
in the visible spectrum with respect to a phosphor based white
LED. From our studies, the total received power from reflected
paths and the RMS delay spread of the VLC cases are smaller
than those of infrared communications, which means the VLC
has a larger optical transmission bandwidth.
A VLC modulation scheme requires compatibility with the
dimming system of the LED lighting. We can see that VOOK
has the same power requirement as VPPM, but it has better
spectral efficiency than VPPM. Under 50 % brightness, RZ­
OOK should require 3 dB less power than VOOK or VPPM,
and can achieve the spectral efficiency of 1 [bpslHz]; however,
RZ-OOK provides at most 50 % brightness.
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(12)
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r�
Rb
0< 'Y:::; 0.5,
dvook = dvppm =
pJ2(k�')
0.5:::; 'Y <
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