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Figure 2. a) Directed LOS configuration; b) non-directed LOS configuration; c) diffused light configuration.
developed for illumination purposes. In general, of spectral notches [11]. The idea of dynamic data
there are two main types of white-light LEDs rate adaptive OFDM was proposed and developed
commonly used for lighting: phosphorescent and almost at the same time by another research group
multi-color (RGB). The phosphorescent type and by us independently in [7, 8]. We have contin-
consists of a blue LED chip plus a yellow phos- ued working on implementation of such sophisti-
phor layer. The multi-color type, in contrast, cated adaptive systems and have shown that data
consists of three (or in some cases four) individ- rates up to the gigabit per second range, based on
ual chips, mostly red, green and blue (hence DMT modulation with bit and power loading for
RGB). While the phosphorescent type allows for throughput maximization beyond conventional 3
cost-efficient installations, mainly because of its dB bandwidth limitations, are feasible.
simpler driver design, it provides only narrow A real boost of the throughput can be
modulation bandwidth, given the slow response achieved with RGB-LEDs using WDM. The
time of the phosphorescent material. However, principle is shown in Fig. 3. DMT via WDM
we were able to demonstrate that the bandwidth channels and VLC was studied in detail in [3]
can be enhanced by an order of magnitude of using a commercially available high-power white-
about 20 MHz by suppressing the phosphores- light RGB-LED as the optical source and WDM
cent portion of the optical spectrum with the aid pass-band filters combined with an APD as the
of a blue filter at the receiver end [6]. In con- receiver element. Compared to single-color
trast, white-light RGB-type LEDs enable three transmission, the aggregate data rate was extend-
individual color channels, each providing approx- ed to 1.25 Gb/s at an illuminance level of 1000 lx
imately 15 MHz bandwidth. By using three at the receiver, a value within the range recom-
drivers in parallel, wavelength-division multiplex- mended by the European lighting standard (EN
ing (WDM) can be realized. However, the 12464-1 from 2003) for working environments.
advantage of an increased aggregate data rate is Based on a similar offline-processed WDM-VLC
achieved at the expense of higher costs. setup and a low-power RGB-LED, the authors in
[10] reported an aggregate data rate of 3.4 Gb/s.
VLC ACHIEVEMENTS Of course, WDM is also applicable for setting
A couple of research groups have demonstrated up bidirectional VLC links operating in a full
that although illumination LEDs are not intend- duplex mode. Corresponding experiments for
ed for data transmission, they do offer signifi- proof of principle by means of offline processing
cant potential for high-speed communications. are described, for example, in [12]. There it was
Starting with phosphorescent LEDs and simple shown recently that bidirectional VLC links can
on-off keying (OOK) modulation, which enable provide capacities of more than just a few hun-
100–230 Mb/s data rates [9], transmission speeds dred megabits per second.
have been increased continuously by applying
more spectrally efficient modulation formats. In
particular, orthogonal frequency-division multi-
REAL-TIME 500 MB/S
plexing (OFDM) alias discrete multitone trans- BIDIRECTIONAL VLC LINK
mission (DMT 1) in several variants have been
studied and evaluated over the years. Using a SYSTEM DESIGN
phosphorescent LED in an LOS configuration, Besides the high-speed offline-processed laborato-
data rates up to 1 Gb/s have been achieved in ry achievements, the maturity of VLC technology
1 The DMT technique is the laboratory by means of offline-processed for all potential applications has to be proven with
known from digital sub- experiments [2], and even rates of up to 1.5 Gb/s real-time systems. This is an aspect on which we
scriber line (DSL); in when using RGB-LEDs in a single-color trans- have recently focused. The very first high-speed
radio systems it is known mission mode [3, 10]. Work on optimization of VLC real-time demonstration was presented in
as OFDM. DMT can be LED modulation is still in progress, for example, February 2011 at ORANGE laboratory facilities
realized using OFDM on parameters such as power efficiency. by the consortium of the EU project OMEGA
where a real-valued wave- In contrast to LOS scenarios, non-directed (www.ict-omega.eu). This system provided a 100
form is obtained using a LOS or diffuse configurations call for adaptive Mb/s net data rate. OFDM-based modulation and
so-called mirror function transmission schemes due to their specific channel demodulation, forward error correction, synchro-
[6, 8]. properties, for instance, the common appearance nization, and a specifically developed medium
Receiver 1
future commercial applications, more recently Data 2
G
we developed the first bidirectional real-time
high-speed rate-adaptive VLC system. It oper- VLC-channel
ates in half-duplex mode based on time-division Data 3 1000 lx
B
duplex (TDD). The idea is presented schemati-
cally in Fig. 4. Data transmission is based on a
rate-adaptive OFDM modulation and demodula- Lens
tion scheme. The transceivers are equipped with
tailored VLC transmitter and receiver modules. Figure 3. The WDM principle for VLC showing in-parallel transmission of
As the VLC channel is based on intensity modu- three (RGB) channels and reception of one channel via color filtering.
lation and direct detection, a real-valued positive
waveform is needed. Here, DC-biased DMT is
applied to obtain a unipolar (positive valued)
LED-luminaire
time domain signal at the transmitter, while any
potentially remaining negative signal amplitudes
TIA
are clipped at the expense of an increased error
rate. Possible bit errors are handled by integrat-
OFDM
ed forward error correction (FEC). The VLC transceiver Visible
transmitter is primarily composed of a newly 1000BASE-T light
Ethernet Photodiode
developed LED current driver and an off-the- LED
LED
shelf high-power visible-light LED. The VLC current
receiver comprises a transimpedance amplifier driver
(TIA) and a commercially available high-speed
Si-PIN-photodiode. These new modules have
significantly increased the modulation bandwidth
of our optical link up to 180 MHz.
These transceiver modules can operate with- Optical
out active cooling and are easily usable. Mean- channel
while, a second generation of such modules with
a reduced form factor (Fig. 5) has emerged.
Each transceiver is equipped with an external
power supply and 1000BASE-T Ethernet inter-
faces using standard RJ45 connectors (further
details will be published elsewhere). Visible
light
TIA LED
EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Photodiode
One particular advantage of our real-time VLC
system is the use of bidirectional rate-adaptive OFDM
transceiver
OFDM transmission enabling a variable through- 1000BASE-T
Ethernet LED
put with controlled error rate, depending on the current
quality of the optical communication channel. At driver
a typical working distance of 2 m between the Tabletop
ceiling and the tabletop, and in a circular spot
covering a typical working area of roughly 60 cm Figure 4. The overall scheme of a bidirectional real-time LOS VLC link.
in diameter, the system enables a data rate of
200 Mb/s per user. By using the same transceiver
combined with narrow-beam optics, we improved ter visualization of the bidirectional data trans-
the system performance, achieving a data rate of mission. In fact, any other high-power LED
100 Mb/s over 20 m distances. As shown on the could be used as the light source regardless of its
left of Fig. 6, the most important parameter is color. In the near future, we expect that more
the light intensity at the receiver, leading to powerful OFDM chips will be available. As our
nearly proportional adaptation of the data rate. VLC components already provide the necessary
Thanks to the dynamic rate control, by reducing analog bandwidth, there is a significant potential
the distance or using a more directional beam, for further increased data rates.
the data rate can steadily be increased until the
500 Mb/s peak data rate is reached (Fig. 6, right).
Our bidirectional VLC experiments demon-
TECHNICAL OUTLOOK
strate for the first time that the dense optical VLC has high potential if the “piggyback” effect
WiFi communication scenario, still considered on the lighting function of white-light LEDs is
visionary earlier, can now be realized in a rea- used. Similar to LED lamps, low-cost mass fabri-
sonable indoor setup using commercially avail- cation is an essential prerequisite for ubiquitous
able hardware. We exemplarily used red LED acceptance of VLC, as are minimal power con-
sources, as shown on the right of Fig. 5, for bet- sumption, improved robustness, and higher data
Figure 5. Left: First generation real-time point-to-point 500 Mb/s VLC system as shown at a commercial exhibition. Middle: Zoom-in of
the desk part. Note that this setup includes an infrared uplink, while visible light could be used as well. Right: Second generation of the
bidirectional transceivers with a reduced footprint of 87 mm × 114 mm × 42 mm without lenses.
rates. Our experiments have conclusively demon- promising because the non-directed LOS chan-
strated that there are no real technical show- nel is essentially flat, apart from the low-pass
stoppers. character of the optical transmitters and
Deployment costs will be dominated by three receivers. Single-carrier transmission combined
contributions. First, the LED needs a bias-T for with frequency domain equalization and modifi-
high-speed modulation. Second, we need a pow- cations thereof [14], and extended to support
erful analog LED driver and a low-noise amplifi- multiple users, as in Long Term Evolution (LTE)
er after the photodiode. Both require careful mobile radio, also has high potential for VLC.
impedance matching. Third, a baseband chip is Higher point-to-point user data rates are cer-
needed based on adaptive OFDM providing an tainly feasible utilizing higher bandwidth and
interface to the network infrastructure (e.g., via WDM, as described earlier. Moreover, there is
the power line). All these aspects are already significant potential for spatial multiplexing
realizable today with commercial components, so using pixelated transmitters and receivers, possi-
mass production appears feasible. Moreover, bly reaching 10 Gb/s and beyond. On the other
low-cost mass production calls for monolithic sys- hand, hundreds of megabits per second may be
tem integration as the form factor can be further enough for a single user nowadays. Thus, it
reduced in this way. Despite the add-on of com- might be wiser to exploit the spatial multiplexing
munication to lighting, the developed system is potential to achieve higher aggregate data rates
quite energy efficient. Power consumption is only for multiple users in a homogeneously lit large
moderately increased by 30 percent compared to coverage area. Note that optical bandwidth is
the original lighting function in our real-time more easily shared than radio. Using, for exam-
VLC system due to the optimized LED driver ple, selective light beams, data can be directed
design. As the choice of color temperature is rel- to one user without complex signal processing.
atively unimportant for communication, the sys- Optical space-division multiplexing can also
tem can also operate with tunable light color. enable high-speed access for each individual user
As discussed in the previous section, there is by spatially reusing the modulation bandwidth.
some potential for higher link capacity in both While optical beam-forming has often been
the optical subsystem and the baseband. In the demonstrated in the scientific literature [15, ref-
latter case, development depends strongly on the erences therein], further research is needed to
availability of adaptive OFDM chips with an integrate this new technology autonomously into
extended baseband bandwidth. Depending on optical access points and terminals.
the optical link setup, the choice of suitable opti-
cal lenses can significantly increase the attain-
able link margin. Until now, adaptive
ROLLOUT AND STANDARDIZATION
transmission has been realized using DMT with From our point of view, optical wireless will
bit and power loading on individual subcarriers. increasingly complement radio in the future.
For enhanced robustness, advanced waveforms Hybrid technologies, involving the use of unified
with reduced clipping probability, such as block- wireless data protocols and link management,
wise pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) with will accordingly play a significant role.
frequency domain equalization [13] may be An important aspect of rollout in the poten-
Red LED: Data rate vs. light intensity Red and blue LED: Data rate vs. distance
500 500
Blue LED
Red LED
400 400
Data rate (Mbit/s)
200 200
100 100
0 0
101 102 0 5 10 15 20 25
Light intensity (lx) Distance (m)
Figure 6. Measurement results for the real-time VLC system. Left: Achieved data rates for the red LED-based transmitter depending on
the light intensity measured using a standard photometer at the receiver entity. Right: Measured data rates over varying transmission
distances demonstrating the practically color-independent bidirectional data transmission.
tial application scenarios is a low-cost network multipoint functionality. Finally, energy efficien-
behind VLC. For existing indoor environments, cy aspects will certainly play a major role, in par-
it is intuitive to use the power lines to the room ticular for the implementation of VLC in mobile
lighting as a network infrastructure, in order to devices.
accelerate deployment and reduce costs. For
extending the already existing power line com-
munications (PLC) technology with VLC, ampli-
CONCLUSIONS
fy-and-forward or decode-and-forward strategies In this article we have recapitulated recent devel-
are of interest. On the other hand, for new opments in the area of high-speed visible-light
installations, plastic optical fibers (POF) are communication. These systems exploit the natu-
considered promising, as they provide improved ral opportunity of piggybacking data transmission
data security. VLC could be combined with an over new LED-based luminaires. Our focus was
optical backhaul, paving the way for future all- on demonstrating the maturity of this technology
optical wireless solutions. for a number of dense high-speed wireless com-
A dedicated standardization roadmap is munication scenarios envisioned mainly in indoor
essential for the future availability of VLC in a settings such as aircraft cabins, operating the-
large number of portable devices. Standardiza- atres, trade fair halls, or private homes.
tion activities so far emanate from the Infrared We have summarized recent experimental
Data Association (IrDA) interest group and work demonstrating that VLC has high potential
from the IEEE. Whereas IrDA provides mainly for high-speed communications in these scenar-
specifications for wireless infrared protocols, the ios. Even today, the simplest on-off keying mod-
IEEE published a first OWC standard, IEEE ulation enables more than 100 Mb/s, while
802.15.7-2011, using VLC in September 2011. transmission speed can be further increased
The recent extension of the International beyond 1 Gb/s by using more spectrally efficient
Telecommunication Union (ITU) g.hn standard adaptive wideband modulation techniques and
(ITU-T Recommendation G.9960, 2011) fore- wavelength-division multiplexing.
seeing an optical channel is equally of impor- A bidirectional real-time visible light commu-
tance. Research and development is already nications prototype, supporting data rate adaption
coordinated on several platforms: the Visible according to the lighting conditions and operating
Light Communications Consortium (since 2003, at speeds of up to 500 Mb/s, has been presented
http://www.vlcc.net), the Li-Fi (Light-Fidelity) for the first time. It combines both lighting and
Consortium (launched 2011, www.lificonsor- fast wireless data communications under very
tium.org) and the COST action OPTICWISE realistic conditions and is entirely based on com-
(since 2011, http://opticwise.uop.gr). mercially available low-cost hardware.
After short-range IrDA links were replaced Future research and development will be
by Bluetooth, optical wireless became a niche directed toward further system optimization,
market, and substantial acceptance has not yet hybrid integration with other wired and wireless
been reached in the industry. We believe that technologies, and the use of space-division mul-
the mass market opportunities for VLC will be tiple access for operating multiple optical wire-
drastically increased when the lighting industry less links in parallel. An increasingly important
agrees on the incorporation of data transmission aspect is an internationally harmonized view on
features into common lighting. Standardization standardization in order to create the ecosystem
needs equally to move forward from point-to- needed for the rollout of this technology in the
point link design issues to address multipoint-to- future.