Proactive link handover deploying coordinated transmission for indoor visible light communications (VLC) networks

Abstract

Abstract Visible Light Communications (VLC) is considered as an emerging technology for indoor wireless communications to achieve high-speed and secure data transmission. Instead of using radio frequency (RF) spectrum, VLC uses the visible light spectrum to perform lighting and communications functions simultaneously. Multiple access points VLC (multi-AP VLC) networks use ceiling access point (ceiling-AP) and desk access point (desk-AP) to provide both uniform and spot lighting in order to achieve full coverage and high spectral efficiency. Because mobile user equipment (UE) require seamless connectivity when moving, fast link handover between VLC access points (VLC-AP) has to be supported in the VLC networks. In this paper, we present a coordinated multi-channel transmission method (CMcT) used to improve quality of service (QoS) of cell-edge UEs and propose a novel proactive link handover scheme deploying the CMcT method for multi-AP VLC networks. Performance results obtained by computer simulation show that the proactive link handover scheme deploying the CMcT method can significantly improve user throughput and packet delay comparing with those of other link handover schemes.