Design of a hybrid free space optical and visible light communication system for indoor wireless data broadcasting

Abstract

Abstract The continuous development of online social services and the ever-increasing number of devices demanding high-speed and ubiquitous broadband wireless access have resulted in severe bandwidth congestion, such that the radio frequency (RF) spectrum will no longer be able to support the exponential growth in demand. Along with being faster, cheaper, greener, cleaner, and safer than current technology, visible light communication (VLC) can overcome the bottleneck issues with last-mile connectivity by offering 10, 000 times broader bandwidth. In this paper, we propose a system with portable, low-cost hybrid RF/VLC and free-space optics (FSO) transceivers with a simple graphical user interface and the capability of indoor wireless communication and multimedia broadcasting, thus presenting an economical and cable-free solution to various multimedia applications, such as file transmission and real-time audio and video streaming. The proposed system deploys VLC as a hotspot for data broadcasting within an enclosed room, FSO as the backbone for data transmission between multiple rooms, and Wi-Fi for lights-off mode. Preliminary results show a transmission rate of 1kbps at a maximum distance of 4 cm.