A Technical Seminar On

VISIBLE LIGHT COMMUNICATION

Vikas R
1HK10CS085
By
Department of Computer Science & Engg.
HKBK College of Engineering,
22/1, Nagawara, Arabic College Post, Bangalore-45, Karnataka
(Affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belgaum)
Contents

Introduction
Present Scenario
Working Process
Li-Fi vs Wi-Fi
Applications
Advantages and Disadvantages
Conclusion
References



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Introduction
What is Visible Light Communication ?
VLC is also known as Light-Fidelity
LI-FI is transmission of data through illumination, sending
data through a LED light bulb that varies intensity faster
than human eye can follow.
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Present Scenario
Radio Spectrum is congested but the demand for wireless data
double each year .Every thing, it seems want to use wireless
data but the capacity is drying up.



1.4 Million Base Stations
5 Billion
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Radio Spectrum
Issues regarding Radio Spectrum

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Radio Spectrum Issues
Capacity
Radio waves are running out of spectrum
Cost and Expensive
Less Bandwidth compared to other spectrums
Insufficient spectrum for increasing data


Millions of base stations consume huge amount
of energy for
1.Transmitting the radio waves
2.To cool the base station cabins
5% Efficiency of each base station


Efficiency

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Radio Spectrum Issues
Availability

Available within the range of Base stations
Limited availability
Unavailable in aircrafts


Less secure(passes through the walls)



Security
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Alternative to Radio Waves in Electromagnetic spectrum
Looking at EM spectrum.


Gamma rays are radioactive, dangerous and thus cant be used for our
purpose of communication.
X-rays are good in hospitals and cant be used either.
Ultra violet rays are sometimes good for our skin but for long duration it is
dangerous.
Infrared rays are bad for our eyes and are therefore used at low power
levels.
We have already seen the short comings of radio waves.
So we are now left with Visible Rays.
Radio-
Waves
Infra-
Waves
Visible
Rays
Ultra-
Violet
X-rays
Gamma
Rays
Alternative to Radiowaves in EM
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The LiFi product consists of 4 primary sub-assemblies:
1. Bulb
2. RF Power Amplifier Circuit (PA)
3. Printed Circuit Board (PCB)
4. Enclosure

1. The high concentration of energy in the electric field vaporizes the
contents of the bulb to a plasma state at the bulbs center; this
controlled plasma generates an intense source of light.

2. An RF (radio-frequency) signal is generated by the solid-state PA and
is guided into an electric field about the bulb.

3. The PCB controls the electrical inputs and outputs of the lamp and
houses the microcontroller used to manage different lamp functions.

4. All of these subassemblies are contained in an aluminum enclosure.
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On one end all the data on the internet will be streamed to a lamp driver.
When the LED is turned on the microchip converts this digital data in the form
of light.
On the other end this light is detected by photo sensitive devices.
Next this light is amplified and processed and then fed to the device.
This method of using rapid pulses of light to transmit information wirelessly is
technically referred as Visible Light Communication .
There are two parts of VLC architecture one is a transmitter part and the other
one is a receiving part.
The sending part can use any kind of LED illumination. The sending part of
VLC must have Physical Layer (PHY) & Data Link Layer (DLL) functions
for illumination and transmission performance. The receiving Part of VLC can
support any kind of Photo Diode with prevention from interference of any
other light source.

Working Process
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How It Works..???
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The Transmitting Unit Prototype
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Receiving element
Receiving elements are AVALANCHE PHOTO DIODE and image
sensor.
Avalanche photo diode is responsible for converting the light
signal into electrical signal and further image sensor is used for
processing the light signals from the LEDs.
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OSI reference model of VLC Architecture
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Li-Fi
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Model Prototype Of LiFi
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Li-Fi vs Wi-Fi
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Application Areas
Li Fi technology is still in its infancy .However some areas
where it seems perfectly applicable are:-

1 . Traffic Lights :
Traffic lights can communicate
to the car and with each other.
Cars have LED-based
headlights, LED-based back
lights, and cars can
communicate with each other
and prevent accidents by
exchanging information.
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Traffic Control By LiFi
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Potential Application of Li-Fi
2. Intrinsically Safe Environment :
Visible Light is more safe than RF, hence it can be used in
places where RF can't be used such as petrochemical plants .


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Potential Application of Li-Fi
Hospitals(In Few Medical Equipements) :
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Potential Application of Li-Fi
3. Airlines :

Whenever we travel through airways we face the problem
in communication media ,because the whole airways
communication are performed on the basis of radio waves. To
overcome this drawback on radioways , li-fi is introduced.

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Application
There are millions of street lamps deployed around the world.
Street Lamps (As free Access Points) :
Each of these street lamps could be a free access point.

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App By Philips using VLC technology.
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Advantages of Li-Fi Technology
10000 times more spectrum than Radio waves.
Speed is 10000 times greater than the average WiFi.
We have the infrastructure available and already installed.
Data through illumination and thus data transmission comes for free.
Led light consumes less energy.
High efficiency.
Can be used in airplanes.
It can be underwater where radio waves cannot.
Light waves doesnt penetrate through walls.
Cant be intercepted and misused.
Data is present where there is light.


Advantages of Li-Fi
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Challenges and Limitations of LiFi
There should be line of sight between sender and receiver
Visible light cannot penetrate through solid objects
Interference with other electromagnetic waves makes the
transmitting data to distort
Light cannot approach the range and penetration of radio waves
A major challenge facing Li-Fi is how the receiving device will
transmit back to transmitter.
Interferences from external light sources like sun light, normal
bulbs, and opaque materials in the path of transmission will cause
interruption in the communication.
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Video of the LiFi LED
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Conclusion
The possibilities are numerous and can be explored further. If
this technology can be put into practical use , every bulb can
be used something like a Wi-Fi hotspots to transmit wireless
data.

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REFERENCES
[1] Light Fidelity (Li-Fi): Towards All-Optical Networking by Dobroslav Tsonev, Stefan Videv and
Harald Haas Institute for Digital Communications , ( Li-Fi R&D Centre, The University of Edinburgh,
EH9 3JL, Edinburgh, UK).
[2] Talha A. Khan, M. Tahir and Ahmad Usman, Visible Light Communication using Wavelength
Division Multiplexing for Smart Spaces, IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference
(CCNC), pp: 230-234 2012.
[3] IEEE 802.15.7, VLC PHY/MAC Proposal-Samsung/ETRI, 2009.
https://mentor.ieee.org/802.15/dcn/09/15-09-0733-00-0007-vlc-phy-mac-proposal-samsung-etri.pdf
[4]Haas, Harald (July 2011). "Wireless data from every light bulb". TED Global. Edinburgh, Scotland.
[5] An IEEE Standard for Visible Light Communicationsvisiblelightcomm.com, dated April
2011.Tsonev, D.; Sinanovic, S.; Haas, Harald (15 September 2013). "Complete Modeling of
Nonlinear Distortion in OFDM-Based Optical Wireless Communication". IEEE Journal of
Lightwave Technology 31 (18): 3064 3076.doi:10.1109/JLT.2013.2278675
[6] Li-Fi: Edinburgh prof seeds LEDs for communication. www.phys.org
[7] www. http://spectrum.ieee.org




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Visible Light Communication
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