Optical link for bidirectional communication based on visible light

Visible Light Communication (VLC) is currently a research topic under severe development due to the possibility to provide high data rates and handle the general, worldwide demanding need for climbing bandwidth. VLC uses Light Emitting Diodes (LED), operating in the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum, as optical sources for optical wireless communication. The technology provides dual functions of lighting and communication. Its main advantages are related to high data rates, higher bandwidth, reliability and a secure data transmission compared to other wireless technologies (such as Wi-Fi). This paper explores the use of VLC to establish different optical communication links for bidirectional communication between vehicles and infrastructures, using 3 links, namely Infrastructure-To-Vehicle (I2V), Vehicle-To-Infrastructure and (V2I) communication. The proposed application uses VLC to support autonomous navigation of mobile robots inside a modern, automated warehouse, providing navigation and stock management services. Specific coding schemes are used in each optical link using On-OFF keying modulation. In the I2V link RGB white LEDs are used to allow simultaneous modulation of the emitters embedded in each LED, which enables wavelength division multiplexing of the transmitted optical signals. The detection is based on a based a-SiC:H pin-pin photodetector with tunable sensitivity in the visible range. Different indoors communication scenarios are presented and the system performance on bit error rate is discussed using a bit parity error control methodology. Requirements related to synchronous transmission and flicker mitigation were addressed to enhance the system performance.