Improve VLC LiFi Performance for V2V

Communication

(&)
Cristian-Ovidiu Ivascu , Doru Ursutiu, and Cornel Samoila
Universitatea Transilvania, Brasov, Romania
cristian.ivascu@unitbv.ro

Abstract. LiFi VLC Communication for V2V Purposes. The goal of V2V
communication is to prevent accidents by allowing vehicles in transit to send
position and speed data to one another over an ad hoc mesh network.
Depending upon how the technology is implemented, the vehicle’s driver may
simply receive a warning should there be a risk of an accident or the vehicle
itself may take pre-emptive actions such as braking to slow down.

Keywords: LiFi VLC V2V V2I Vehicular networks Visible light

communication Vehicle-to-Vehicle Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Vehicle-to-
Internet

1 Introduction

Li-Fi (short for light fidelity) is a technology for wireless communication between
devices using light to transmit data and position. In its present state only LED lamps
can be used for the transmission of visible light [1]. The term was first introduced by
Harald Haas during a 2011 TEDGlobal talk in Edinburgh. In technical terms, Li-Fi is
a visible light communications system that is capable of transmitting data at high
speeds over the visible light spectrum, ultraviolet and infrared radiation [1].
In terms of its end use the technology is similar to Wi-Fi. The key technical
difference is that Wi-Fi uses radio frequency to transmit data. Using light to transmit
data allows Li-Fi to offer several advantages like working across higher bandwidth
working in areas susceptible to electromagnetic interference (e.g., aircraft cabins,
hospitals) and offering higher transmission speeds.
V2V communication, vehicle-to-vehicle communication, is the wireless transmis-
sion of data between motor vehicles.
Motivated by the looming radio frequency (RF) spectrum crisis, this paper aims at
demonstrating that optical wireless communication (OWC) has now reached a state
where it can demonstrate that it is a viable and matured solution to this fundamental
problem. Light fidelity (Li-Fi) which is related to visible light communication (VLC)
offers many key advantages, and effective solutions to the issues that have been posed
in the last decade [2].

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

M. E. Auer and K. Ram B. (Eds.): REV2019 2019, LNNS 80, pp. 315–329, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23162-0_29
316 C.-O. Ivascu et al.

2 Goal

The goal of V2V communication is to prevent accidents by allowing vehicles in

transit to send position and speed data to one another over an ad hoc mesh network.
Depending upon how the technology is implemented, the vehicle’s driver may simply
receive a warning should there be a risk of an accident or the vehicle itself may take
pre-emptive actions such as braking to slow down.
V2V communication is expected to be more effective than current automotive
original equipment manufacturer (OEM) embedded systems for lane departure, adap-
tive cruise control, blind spot detection, rear parking sonar and backup camera
because V2V technology enables an ubiquitous 360-degree awareness of surrounding
threats. V2V communication is part of the growing trend towards pervasive
computing, a concept known as the Internet of Things (IoT).
Connected vehicles use wireless technology to connect vehicle information and
location to other vehicles (V2V); to infrastructure (V2I); or to other modes, such as
internet clouds, pedestrians, and bicyclists (V2X). The wireless technology typically
used for connected vehicles is DSRC, Dedicated short-range communications, but
some functions may use cellular or other types of communication.
The goal is to use LiFi in order to communicate from one vehicle to another one
and from vehicle to infrastructure or from vehicle to internet. Connected vehicles
offer additional functions related to roadside devices and fleet-level information.
Connected vehicles bring additional mobility and environmental benefits that cannot
be achieved through automation alone.
V2V technology represents the next great advance in saving lives. This
technology could move us from helping people survive crashes to helping them avoid
crashes altogether—saving lives, saving money, and even saving fuel thanks to the
widespread benefits it offers [3].

3 Approach

With the omnipresence of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in outdoor and automotive

lightings, VLC, Visible Light Communication, emerges as a natural candidate for
vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications. We
first provide an overview of this emerging research area highlighting recent advances
and identifying open problems for further research. Then, we present the performance
evaluation of a typical V2V VLC system with realistic automotive light sources. Our
evaluation takes into account the measured headlamp beam pattern and the impact of
road reflected light. We demonstrate that depending on the photodetector (PD)
position above the ground level, a data rate of 50 Mb/s can be achieved at 70 m.
There has been a growing interest in the field of intelligent transportation systems
(ITSs) in an effort to improve road safety and traffic fl ow and to address environmental
concerns. The ITS involves the application of the advanced information processing,
control technologies, sensors, and communications in an integrated approach to
improve the functioning of the road transportation systems. Considerable efforts
have been made in the last decade by researchers from both academia and industry
to enable
 Improve VLC LiFi Performance for V2V Communication 317

the cooperative ITS, which is seen as the next generation of ITSs and it is enabled by
V2V and V2I communications.
We consider VLC as a complementary and/or an alternative technology to RF-
based systems. An alternative communication means can turn out to be useful to
offload the RF channel. VLC refers to the use of optical radiation at the visible
wavelengths to transmit data in an unguided medium. Since the human eye perceives
only the average intensity when light is switched on and off fast enough, then it is
possible to transmit information data using LEDs without a notable effect on the light
illumination level and the human eye. Recent advances in materials and solid-state
technologies have enabled the development of highly efficient LEDs that are now
being widely used in outdoor lighting, traffic signs, and advertising displays.
Furthermore, many automotive manu-facturers have started to employ LEDs due to
their high resistance to vibration, improved safety performance, and long life span.
LEDs can be now found in brake lights, turn signals, and headlamps in most new
vehicles. The outdoor and on-vehicle omnipresence of LEDs makes the use of VLC
for V2V and V2I communications possible [4].
As illustrated in Fig. 1, a vehicular VLC network consists of on-board units, i.e.,
automobiles, motorcycles, other type of vehicles, and RSUs, i.e., traffic lights, street-
lamps and digital signage. In addition, RSUs are connected to the backbone network
via the roadside infrastructure (RSI) network. Vehicles fitted with LED based front
and back lights can communicate with each other and with the RSUs through the
VLC technology. In a vehicle, a VLC transceiver is connected to both headlamps and
taillights, which serve as “optical transmit antennas.” As “optical receive antennas,”
PDs are placed next to each of these four lights and connected to the VLC transceiver.
Additional PDs can be installed on the sides of vehicles (such as the back sides of
rearview mirrors) to enhance coverage. As an alternative to PDs, an image sensor (IS)
(i.e., a camera), which is now available in many cars, could be also used for reception.

Fig. 1. Vehicular VLC network. VLOBU: VLC-based on-board unit

318 C.-O. Ivascu et al.

4 Comparison of RF and VLC for Vehicular Networking

The unique properties of optical propagation and VLC offer many advantages com-
pared with those of the RF communications including immunity to the
electromagnetic interference, operation in unlicensed bands, inherent safety and
security, and a high degree of spatial confinement allowing a high reuse factor. A
comparison of the main features of both VLC- and RF-based (Specifically 802.11p
[5]) vehicular networking is provided in Table 1.

Table 1. A comparison of the VLC and IEEE 802.11p performance characteristics

Type VLC 802.11.p
Communication mode Point-to-point (LOS or diffuse) Point-to-multipoint/broadcasting
Latencya Very low 150 ms
Data rateb Up to 400 Mb/s Up to 54 Mb/s
Range Up to 100 m (single hop) Up to 1 km
Frequency band 400–790 THz (390–750 nm) 5.8–5.9 GHz
License Unlicensed Licensed
Cost Low High
Mobility Medium High
EMI No Yes
Power consumption Relatively low Medium
Coverage Narrow Wide
Weather conditions Sensitive Robust
Ambient light Sensitive Not affected
a
The latency is defined as the maximum time span during which information is successfully
delivered to targeted vehicles
b
Range refers to the distance that a signal can propagate delivering the required quality of
service

As Table 1 reveals, VLC is well positioned to address both the low latency required in
safety functionalities (i.e., emergency electronic brake lights, intersection collision
warning, in-vehicle signage, and platooning) and high speeds required in so-called
infotainment applications (i.e., map downloads and updates, media downloads, point of
interest notifications, high-speed Internet access, multiplayer gaming, and
cooperative downloading). Furthermore, VLC is a cost-effective and green
communication solution since the dual use of LED lighting systems on the vehicles
and the roadside infras-tructure is targeted. An LED-based VLC system would
consume less energy compared with the RF technology, thus allowing the expansion
of communication networks without the added energy requirements, potentially
contributing to the global carbon emission reduction in the long run. VLC-based
networks will further offer better scalability in scenarios with high vehicle density,
where the RF-based vehicular communications experience longer delays and lower
packet rate because of the channel congestion. The directionality of optical
propagation provides an inherent advantage in
 Improve VLC LiFi Performance for V2V Communication 319

vehicular VL since only a small number of neighboring vehicles, typically within the
direct line of sight (LOS) of the receiver (Rx), are in the same contention domain,
thereby significantly lowering collision probability and increasing scalability. How-
ever, this advantage is at the cost of reduced coverage compared with RF technologies
and requires judiciously designed upper-layer protocols to handle more frequent han-
dovers. VLC is also appealing for vehicular scenarios in which the use of a RF band
is restricted or banned due to the safety regulations, e.g., industrial parks such as in
oil/gas/mining industries, and military vehicle platoons, to name a few. Another
attractive feature of VLC is the positioning and navigation capabilities. Although the
global positioning system (GPS) is widely used today, it fails to provide a sufficient
accuracy in environments where there is no LOS paths such as tunnels, indoor
parking lots, and some urban canyons. For such cases, VLC-based positioning
technology could be used to complement the accuracy of other localization systems,
knowing that the lighting fixtures offer very high accuracy, up to of tens of
centimeters, which is much more suitable for vehicle safety applications, compared
with a typical positioning error of up to 10 m associated with the GPS. VLC also
presents some challenges due to operation in outdoor environments such as severe
weather conditions, sunlight, and ambient light. Visibility-limiting conditions such as
heavy fog or snow could decrease the operation range. These degrading effects can be
kept at minimum with highly sensitive RXs. Another potential concern is direct
sunlight or strong ambient light, which could saturate the VLC Rx. This is usually
addressed by utilizing proper optical filtering.

5 Vehicular VLC Research and Open Problems

Early research efforts on the use of LEDs for V2I communications can be traced back
to a U.S. patent issued in 1997 (Patent 5 633 629), which utilizes traffic lights to
optically transmit information to a vehicle. In initial performance evaluation studies
[6, 7], the basic performance metrics such as the received optical power and the
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) have been derived for different road surfaces (e.g., asphalt
versus cement or concrete) for a V2I communication system between a street/traffic
light and a vehicle. More recent experimental works [8–10] have used off-the-shelf
LEDs and PDs to investigate the throughput and the error rate performance of VLC-
based V2V and V2I links. Such works have demonstrated the feasibility of the
vehicular VLC. However, in many respects, this technology is in its infancy and
requires further research efforts in several areas including channel modeling, physical
layer design, and upper-layer protocols.

6 Channel Modeling Aspects

Most works on the propagation modeling and characterization of VLC channels are
mainly limited to the indoor environments. For the outdoor environment, as in the case of
vehicular networking, additional noise sources such as the ambient interference due to the
background solar radiation and artificial light sources from cars and streetlights
320 C.-O. Ivascu et al.

must be taken into consideration as mentioned earlier. Furthermore, the visibility

limiting weather and environmental conditions (such as rain, snow, fog, and car
fumes) and heat-induced turbulence (i.e., scintillation effects) need to be further
considered. The outdoor VLC channel modeling has been investigated only in
sporadic works [11], where the effects of solar irradiance and artificial light sources
are modeled and incorporated in the channel model. While these initial works point
out the striking difference between the indoor and outdoor VLC channels, systematic
modeling and characterization of outdoor VLC channels particularly considering that
the ITS envi-ronments and scenarios does not exist yet.

7 Physical Layer Design Issues

VLC channels are of multipath nature and exhibit frequency selectivity, which results
in inter symbol interference (ISI), and leads to a reduced data rate. The conventional
solution for the ISI mitigation in a single carrier system is to adopt the time-domain
equalization (TDE) and use modulation formats with wide-enough pulse duration.
Although nonlinear TDEs are particularly effective in handling ISI, the number of
operations per signaling interval grows linearly or exponentially with the ISI span, or,
equivalently, with the data rates. This results in an excessive complexity and makes
TDEs unfeasible for VLC systems where data rates of several hundreds of megabits
per second are targeted. A powerful alternative to the single-carrier TDE would be the
deployment of multicarrier communication techniques. The most popular form of
multicarrier communications is the orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing
(OFDM), which has been already adopted in various wireless RF and wireline stan-
dards and recently applied to VLC systems [12]. Different from the RF approach, in
OFDM for optical systems, the dc biasing or asymmetrical clipping have been intro-
duced to ensure the non-negativity of the intensity-modulated optical signal. Multiple-
input, multiple-output (MIMO) communication, another innovative technique that
was also originally proposed for RF systems, has been further applied to VLC
systems in recent studies. Since a number of LEDs are used to achieve the required
intensity in a typical lighting application, the MIMO techniques emerge as a natural
candidate in VLC systems to boost the data rate. The combination of OFDM and
MIMO is con-sidered a powerful physical layer solution for high-speed vehicular
VLC systems to support bandwidth-hungry infotainment applications. Another key
component to enable connectivity in vehicular VLC networks is the concept of multi
hop transmis-sion. There are only sporadic works that have addressed multi hop VLC
transmission. For example, researchers from the Disney Research Center have
demonstrated toy-to-toy car communications where messages sent via VLC are
passed from one toy car to another in a multi hop mode. Performance analysis of a
multi hop transmission system is presented in [13] for an indoor scenario where the
light signal emitted from the ceiling is relayed through a desk lamp. The current
works on multi hop VLC are limited to indoor environments and there is an obvious
need for a thorough perfor-mance evaluation of multi hop vehicular VLC networks.
 Improve VLC LiFi Performance for V2V Communication 321

8 Imaging Sensor Communications

ISs can be also used as optical detectors. This type of VLC is also referred to as
camera communication (CamCom). In recent years, we have seen extensive use of
smart-phones, tablets, and event data recorders for car navigation, in car
entertainment, and information related to vehicle crashes or accidents recording. All
these devices have at least one camera and some of them even have the ability to
perform video signal processing. As in an RF MIMO channel, the LED lights
function as the transmit antennas and each camera pixel element as a receiving
antenna in CamCom. In RF MIMO schemes, the signal quality is mainly affected by
the path loss, multipath induced fading, and co channel interference. However, in
CamCom, the channel experiences negligible multipath fading but suffers from path
loss and interference from other light-emitting sources. The latter manifest itself as
visual distortions on the camera output (i.e., the image), which can be modeled using
a traditional camera imaging theory. The channel noise also affects the signal quality
at the camera Rx. Under a high level of ambient light, the noise in a pixel can be
considered signal independent. In typical V2V CamCom applications, headlamps are
used to transmit traffic-related information such as the vehicle’s speed, position, status
of brakes, and changing lanes and statues of the road to the nearby vehicles. Within
the receiving vehicles, a low-frame rate camera is used to capture the transmitted
signal as a video stream. The imaging lens and an IS-based Rx have the ability to
spatially separate light signal from different directions, thus giving CamCom a unique
advantage of interference-free communication based on space-division multiple
access and MIMO, not found in the traditional single PD-based VLC systems. Recent
experimental results in this area [14] demonstrate that various vehicle internal data
(such as speed) and image data (320 # 240, color) were transmitted successfully in
challenging outdoor conditions.

9 Upper-Layer Protocols

In addition to physical layer issues discussed previously, there are also other design
considerations in the upper layers that require further attention to realize a fully
functional vehicular VLC network. For example, the medium access control (MAC)
protocols have been widely investigated in the literature assuming isotropic radiation
of RF systems. VLC systems with their inherent directionality render con-ventional
MAC schemes practically useless. There have been recent efforts on the design of
MAC protocols taking into account this directionality feature as reported in [15]. It
should be further noted that a similar line of research on the MAC and upper layers is
also conducted in the context of sub terahertz communications (i.e., 60 GHz for short
range wireless personal area networks, and 30–40 and 70–90 GHz for long-range
wireless applications). The similarities in these works can be leveraged to some extent
in MAC protocol designs for vehicular VLC networks. In contrast to RF links with
the isotropic coverage, neighbor discovery and link establishments impose further
challenges in vehicular VLC networks, which have not yet been addressed fully.
322 C.-O. Ivascu et al.

10 V2V VLC Evaluation Scenario

We consider a typical V2V VLC scenario as depicted in Fig. 2. Since both the left
and right headlamps have almost identical output light distribution.

Fig. 2. V2V VLC system configuration

We consider both the LOS and the non-LOS (NLOS) components due to
reflections from the road surface, which are assumed to have Lambertian profiles. In
the following, we discuss the modeling of vehicle headlamps and the channel (i.e., the
road surface reflection). The main purpose of both high- and low-beam vehicle’s
headlamps is to provide a safe and comfortable lighting environment for the drivers
and other road users, during the day and night times and in all weather conditions. In
detail, the high beams are used for long distance visibility with no oncoming cars,
whereas the low beams with an asymmetrical light pattern provide maximum forward
and lateral illu-minations while minimizing the glare toward oncoming cars and other
road users. In this article, we have adopted the widely used mathematical model for
the headlamp beam pattern model (developed by the Transportation Research
Institute of the University of Michigan).
Experimental data evaluated of 25 tungsten halogen headlamps. Following pho-
tometric data measurement using a gonio photometer, the collected data were
weighted by the current sales figure for the corresponding vehicles and integrated into
the mathematical model.
Figure 3 shows the isocandela and isoilluminance diagrams of the road surface
from pair of high beam (luminous intensities at the 50th percentile, a lamp mounting
height of 0.62 m, and a lamp separation of 1.12 m) and the low-beam headlamps
(luminous intensities at the 50th percentile, a lamp mounting height of 0.66 m, and a
lamp separation of 1.20 m), respectively. As can be seen for high-beam headlamps, a
narrow flat beam is projected in a horizontal direction a few degrees to the left, thus
providing a symmetrical illumination pattern on the road. However, the low beam
headlamps provide an asymmetrical pattern designed to offer adequate forward and
lateral illuminations, in addition to controlling glare by limiting light being directed
toward the eyes of other drivers. The reflectance from the road surface depends on the
materials used, the road surface, time of the year, and the weather conditions. For wet
or moist road surfaces, a large amount of specular reflection may occur, thus resulting
in greater luminance nonuniformity reflections. In the ideal case, the reflected radiant
 Improve VLC LiFi Performance for V2V Communication 323

intensity is proportional to the cosine value of polar angle. However, for the arbitrary
surface, both diffuse and specular reflections will take place, and the reflected light
will be emitted in all directions of the upper hemisphere, which is challenging to
describe mathematically. Therefore, a table of luminance coefficients (known as a r-
table) has been developed for different road surface classifications based on a large
number of photometric measurements as given in [16].

Fig. 3. The isocandela and isoilluminance diagrams of the road surface. a, b high beam, c, d
low beam

In addition to the detailed reflective property for a range of incidence angle, the
average luminance coefficient (Q) and the specular factor (S) should also be defined to
describe the general reflection properties of a road surface. In general, the larger the Q is,
the more reflective the road surface is. The larger the S is, the more the road surface
324 C.-O. Ivascu et al.

looks like a mirror. The International Commission on Illumination has classified the
road surfaces into different categories for a range of road surface materials and wet
conditions based on the values of Q and S. Table 2 shows eight road-surface classi-
fications defined in terms of the r-table, Q, and S. Note that R1 is the most diffused
surface, while W4 is the most specular surface.

Table 2. Road-surface classifications

Standard table description Q S
R1 Mostly diffused 0.10 0.247
R2 Mixed (diffused and specular) 0.07 0.582
R3 Slightly specular 0.07 1.109
R4 Mostly specular 0.08 1.549
W1 Wet road surface 0.11 3.152
W2 Wet road surface 0.15 5.722
W3 Wet road surface 0.2 8.633
W4 Wet road surface 0.25 10.842

11 Vehicle Hardware System Architecture Schematic

The Hardware system architecture in depicted in Fig. 1 and consists of the following
components: Vehicle Headlight is connected to the Transmit Driver Amplifier (TX
Driver) which is responsible for adapting the signal for the Headlight LED, the TX
Driver is connected to the LiFi Access Point that modulates the signal which is con-
nected to the Ethernet Switch in the same network with the NI sbRIO Device with
CAN Interface connected to the CAN (Controller Area Network) Bus Network of the
car, sending and receiving messages and parameters from the vehicles ECUs (Elec-
tronic Control Unit).
CAN is a multi-master serial bus standard for connecting Electronic Control Units
ECUs also known as nodes. Two or more nodes are required on the CAN network to
communicate. The complexity of the node can range from a simple I/O device up to
an embedded computer with a CAN interface and sophisticated software. The node
may also be a gateway allowing a standard computer to communicate over a USB or
Ethernet port to the devices on a CAN network.
All nodes are connected to each other through a two wire bus. The wires are a
twisted pair with a 120 X (nominal) characteristic impedance.

12 Software System Architecture Schematic

The software architecture is depicted in Fig. 3, data acquired from the vehicle CAN
Bus is analyzed and calculated trough decision algorithms programmed in NI sbRIO
CAN Interface after processing, data I transferred through Ethernet to the LiFi Access
 Improve VLC LiFi Performance for V2V Communication 325

point, data coming from other vehicles is acquired through the receiver module, then
sent to the sbRIO CAN Interface for processing though the LiFi AP and Ethernet
Connection.

13 Performance Results
For the performance evaluation, we assume the deployment of low-beam headlamps and
consider R2 and W3 road surfaces. First, the received optical power of two types of road
surfaces on a vertical plane at different transmission spans should be calculated followed
by the noise variance on the same vertical plane. For the LOS path, the provided PD’s
position is fixed, the distance between the transmitter (Tx) and the Rx and the direction
from Tx to Rx (in relation to the headlamp axis) can be obtained. Therefore, by checking
and interpolating the low-beam headlamp model, the luminous intensity at that particular
direction and the illuminance at the PD’s surface as well as the received optical power (P r)
can be determined. For the NLOS path, the illuminance value at a small area A on the road
surface should be determined, which acts as a secondary light source. As the reflected light
follows the road-surface reflection properties, the luminous intensity of the reflected light
in the direction from A to the Rx can be predicted and Pr from A can be determined. The
total received optical power from the NLOS path is determined by integrating all reflected
lights from the entire road surface. Additive white Gaussian noise is assumed in our work.
This is a good approximation of the shot noise caused by the background radiation when
the intensity of the light incident on the PD is sufficiently high, which is easily justified in
practice. Based on the received optical power, we obtain SNR and bit error rate (BER).
Figure 4 demonstrates the relationship between the communication range and the BER
perfor-mance of V2V VLC system at a data rate of 50 Mb/s on a vertical plane for three
different transmission spans of 20, 40, and 70 m. It is notable that as the distance

Fig. 4. Hardware schematic

326 C.-O. Ivascu et al.

increases, the BER performance decreases. We can observe from Fig. 4 that the lowest
contour lines for the BER degrade from 10–80 at 20 m to 10–4 at 70 m. This is because
when the link span changes from 20 to 70 m, the received optical power reduces by more
than ten times. It can also be observed that the zones with the lowest BER tend to be
smaller and shorter as the distance increases, and their positions are inclined to be more
skewed to the right. This becomes more apparent when examining lines for the BER of
10–30 in Fig. 4, since the adopted low-beam headlamp model is designed for U.S. cars
with the driving on the right W3 has higher Q and S compared with R2. Thus, the W3
road surface reflects more light than the R2 road surface, which increases the received
light from the NLOS link. From the BER profiles of two road

Fig. 5. Vehicle-to-Vehicle V2V and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure V2I schematic

Fig. 6. Software architecture

 Improve VLC LiFi Performance for V2V Communication 327

Fig. 7. The BER distribution on a vertical plane at three different distances with clean low-
beam amps. a log10 (BER) on a vertical plane (20 m from Tx and R2). b log10 (BER) on a
vertical plane (20 m from Tx and W3). c log10 (BER) on a vertical plane (40 m from Tx and
R2). d log10 (BER) on a vertical plane (40 m from Tx and W3). e log10 (BER) on a vertical
plane (70 m from Tx and R2). f log10 (BER) on a vertical plane (70 m from Tx and W3).

Fig. 8. BER over distance

328 C.-O. Ivascu et al.

surfaces (R2 and W3) in Fig. 4, we see an improvement in the BER performance for
the W3 road surface compared with that for the R2 road surface, especially for the
link span of 40 m.

14 Conclusion
The omnipresence of LEDs in streetlights, traffic signs, and advertising displays along
with the increasing usage of LEDs by automotive manufacturers makes VLC a natural
candidate for the wide-scale implementation of cooperative ITSs. In this article, we have
provided an overview of this emerging research area by highlighting some recent results
and identifying open problems in channel modeling, the physical layer design, and upper
layers to be further pursued. We presented a performance evaluation study of a V2V
system using a measured headlamp beam pattern model and taking into account the impact
of road reflected light. Results demonstrated that depending on the PD location in the car
(i.e., its height above the ground level), a higher transmission span up to 70 m between
two cars could be achieved at a data rate of 50 Mb/s.

References
1. Islim, M.S., Haas, H.: Modulation Techniques for Li-Fi, vol. 02, 004 (2016). ISSN 1673-
5188
2. Tsonev, D., Videv, S., Haas, H.: Light Fidelity (Li-Fi): Towards All-Optical Networking
3. U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, http://www.nhtsa.gov/About+NHTSA/Press
+Releases/NHTSA-issues-advanced-notice-of-proposed-rulemaking-on-V2V-
communications
4. Uysal, M., (Fary) Ghassemlooy, Z., Bekkali, A., Kadri, A., Menouar, H.: Performance
study of a V2V system using a measured headlamp beam pattern model.
https://doi.org/10.1109/ mvt.2015.2481561
5. Morgan, Y.L.: Notes on DSRC & WAVE standards suite: Its architecture, design, and
characteristics. IEEE Commun. Surv. Tut. 12(4), 504–518 (2010)
6. Akanegawa, M., Tanaka, Y., Nakagawa, M.: Basic study on traffic information system
using LED traffic lights. IEEE Trans. Intell. Transport. Syst. 2(4), 197–203 (2001)
7. Kitano, S., Haruyama, S., Nakagawa, M.: LED road illumination communications system.
In: Proceeding of IEEE 58th Vehicular Technology Conference Fall, vol. 5, pp. 3346–3350
(2003)
8. Liu, C., Sadeghi, B., Knightly, E.: Enabling vehicular visible light communication (V2LC)
networks. In: Proceedings of 8th ACM International Workshop on Vehicular Inter-
Networking, pp. 41–50 (2011)
9. Lourenco, N., Terra, D., Kumar, N., Alves, L.N., Aguiar, R.L.: Visible light communication
system for outdoor applications. In: Proceedings of 8th International Symposium on
Communication Systems, Networks Digital Signal Processing, pp. 1–6 (2012)
10. Yu, S.-H., Shih, O., Tsai, H.-M., Wisitpongphan, N., Roberts, R.: Smart automotive
lighting for vehicle safety. IEEE Commun. Mag. 51(12), 50–59 (2013)
11. Lee, S.J., Kwon, J.K., Jung, S.Y., Kwon, Y.H.: Simulation modeling of visible light
communication channel for automotive applications. In: Proceedings of 15th Interna-tional
IEEE Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems, pp. 463– 468 (2012)
 Improve VLC LiFi Performance for V2V Communication 329

12. Mesleh, R., Elgala, H., Haas, H.: On the performance of different OFDM based optical
wireless communication systems. J. Opt. Commun. Network. 3(8), 620–628 (2011)
13. Kizilirmak, R.C., Uysal, M.: Relay-assisted OFDM transmission for indoor visible light
communication. In Proceedings of IEEE International Black Sea Conference on Commu-
nications Networking, pp. 11–15 (2014)
14. Takai, I., Harada, T., Andoh, M., Yasutomi, K., Kagawa, K., Kawahito, S.: Optical
vehicle-to-vehicle communication system using LED transmitter and camera receiver.
IEEE Photon. J. 6(5) (2014)
15. Tomas, B., Tsai, H.-M., Boban, M.: Simulating vehicular visible light communication:
physical radio and MAC modeling. In: Proceedings of IEEE Vehicular Networking
Conference, pp. 222–225 (2014)
16. Luo, P., Ghassemlooy, Z., Minh, H.L., Tang, X., Tsai, H.-M.: Undersampled phase shift
ON-OFF keying for camera communication. In: Proceedings of 6th International
Conference on Wireless Communications Signal Processing, 2014, pp. 1–6
17. https://purelifi.com/lifi-products/