527
Visible Light Communications:
Principle, Potential, and Challenges
Keattisak Spirinmanwat1, Paramin Sangwongnam1, Nam-Hoang Nguyen2, Thai-Chien Bui2, Van-Toan Nguyen2
1
Optical & Quantum Communications Laboratory, National Electronics and Computer Technology Center
(NECTEC), NSTDA, Thailand
2
Department of Network and Communication Systems,University of Engineering and Technology, VNU, Vietnam
Abstract
Visible Light Communication (VLC) technology
has been considering significantly in both scientific
and industrial communities. With the rapid
development of solid-state lighting, white light and
others color LEDs is obtaining higher lighting and
power consumption efficiency. It is being also
considered when that lighting combining with data
communications. This capacity of data transferring is
not only for indoor wireless applications but also
possible for the outdoor communication as well.
Consequently, there are a number of research projects
and applications which bringing remarkable
achievements. The cooperative VLC with existing
access networks is one of the key issue for next
generation platform. Responding to this kind of high
potential technology, this paper introduces the concept
of VLC technology providing an extensive overview on
capabilities, challenges, and applications. Its trend and
ongoing projects are also discussed.
Keywords: visible light communications, optical
wireless communication, light emitting
diode (LED), MIMO-OFDM.
1. Introduction
VLC is categorized under Optical Wireless
Communication (OWC) referring to using Light Emitting
Diodes (LED) illumination (or incorporation with
Infrared (IF)) to transmit data over spatial environment.
Comparing to conventional light sources as those
incandescent and fluorescent, white LED acquires the
advantages of long light expectancy, higher light
efficiency and less power consumption. From the fast
development of LED on its material, VLC has adopted
remarkably with impressive progresses in the field of
communications. Unlike communication technology
using Radio Frequency (RF), VLC has overcome some
issue on i.e. limited bandwidth, security, power
consumption, and etc. Overall comparison between VLC
and RF technology is summarized in Table 1 and its basic
analysis for data transmission and transceiver design is
introduced intensively in [1]. Technically with the
integrated communication chip technology on white
LEDs, the total cost for illuminating combining with data
access point can be considerably reduced becoming the
reasons of this popular research area.
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In this high potential field, Japan is that the pioneer
where Visible Light Communication Consortium (VLCC)
[2] was founded in 2003. Subsequently, this kind of
consortium has been growing with more number of R&D
agencies. There are also special interesting groups in US
and Europe such as D-light [3] and OMEGA project [4]
respectively.
Generally, VLC presents high potential applications
in a number of areas. Concurrent and inspired applications
are classified mainly into categories as for instance:
personal or home wireless communication, indoor GPS,
communication in RF free or sensitive area such as in
hospital or on the aircraft. Considering on the primary
function of LED, it provides brightness as a source of light
with communication as a data access point. Therefore,
receivers as in forms of computer, printers, mobile
phones, tablets, and others, could then be interconnected
as mobile units/devices being the indoor VLC system.
Besides for outdoor applications, intelligent transport
system can be also integrated with VLC providing useful
traffic information and signals to vehicles for high safety
and efficient transportation. That can be considered for
both styles of communications between vehicle to vehicle
and vehicle to traffic control infrastructure [5] [6].
Furthermore in hospital or in hazardous environment
where requires isolation from Electromagnetic
Interference (EMI) or Radio Frequency Interference
(RFI), VLC could provide proper communication to those
RF sensitive areas. With more and more inspiration,
indoor positioning or GPS is a new and active R&D area.
Its continuous benefit can be adopted usefully for
controlling household or industrial robots. It includes
various indoor localization and applications as well.
In order to realizing this kind of high powerful
technology from its literature throughout the practical
system, this paper constructs and shows in three main
points of view based on its transmitter, transmission
channel, and receiver. Then, related technical topics are
placed along this structure showing VLC’s principle,
potential, and powerful applications.
2. Transmission Using VLC
VLC transmission system consists of basic parts as
those in digital or wireless communication. As shown in
figure 1, whereas its free space propagation channel is
considered specifically. In general, data transmission
using VLC is done by applying light intensity that leads
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Table 1. Comparison of Visible Light Communication vs

Radio Frequency Technology

Properties VLC Radio Frequency

Regulated and
Bandwidth 400-700nm
Limited
Electromagnetic
NO YES
Interference
Line of Sight YES NO
Distance Short Short to long
Security Good Poor
IEEE 8002.15.7 –
Standard Matured
In progress
Illumination &
Services Communication
Communication
Sunlight &
Noise Sources Electronic appliances
Ambient Light
Power Consumption Relatively low Medium
Mobility Limited Good

Coverage Narrow Wide

to changing amplitude which should not noticeable to

human eyes.
This section presents basic formats of those light
intensity or modulation techniques which will be formed
at transmitter and transmitted through free space channel
to the receiver.
2.1 Modulation and Demodulation
Typically, VLC modulation techniques are classified Fig. 1 Overview of VLC system
into two main branches. Those are Internal Modulation
implemented in the IM-DD style where the light intensity
and External Modulation. First on the internal one, it
is modulated with and to be analogue.
consists three sub-branches focusing on analogue, band
AIM is also found for using as external modulator to
pass and pulse modulation (baseband). In category of
modulate the laser beam [7]. Basically, the average
analogue, three main modulation techniques are
transmitter illumination power signal is given by:
Amplitude Modulation (AM), Phase Modulation (PM),
and Frequency Modulation (FM). Meanwhile in band pass
area, Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK), Frequency Shift Pt =  P0 1+x(t)
Keying (FSK), Phase Shift Keying (PSK), Quadrature Pt =  P0 (1+m.  cosωo t) (2.1)
Amplitude Modulation (QAM), Quadrature Phase Shift
Keying (QPSK), Different Phase Shift Keying (DPSK), Where x(t) = m.  cosωo t is the input signal in angular
and Discrete Multi-tone (DMT), are those main frequency by time t, 𝑃0 is the DC power and m is the
modulation styles for instances. modulation index.
However for higher data rate goal, it is generally ip
m= (2.2)
focused only on External Modulation which more popular Ib -­Ith
than that the internal. In this considered External
Modulation contents: IM (Intensity Modulation), Where 𝑖𝑝 is the peak laser current, 𝐼𝑏 is the DC-biased
Frequency Modulation (FM), and Pulse Modulation (PM) current and 𝐼𝑡ℎ is the threshold current. At the receiver,
are mentioned widely. Following this section, selected optical received Pr signal power is defined by:
technical details of popular and high power efficiency
modulation techniques are presented briefly as; πD2
a) Analogue Intensity Modulation (AIM) Pr = I(0,L) (2.3)
8
AIM is a simple and lower cost technique compared
to that of digital modulation scheme. It can be Where D is aperture diameter. And L is the link distance.

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Transmitter Receiver kTsymb

x(t)PPM =LPr ∑L-­1
k=0 ck P(t-­ ) (2.5)
L
User 1 SM f1 SD f1 User 1
Where 𝑐𝑘 is the symbol sequence, p(t) is the pulse shaping
function, and 𝑃 is received optical power. To demodulate
User 2 SM f2 +
Optical SD f2 User 2 source information, PPM system requires also slot and
channel
∑ symbol synchronization at the receiver.
The obstacle of PPM scheme is that less effective at
high data rate when multipath Inter Symbol Interference
DC offset
(ISI) is considered. In order to improve bandwidth
User n SM fn SD fn User n
efficiency, its modulation has been founding more
subsequently such as: Differential PPM (DPPM), multiple
PPM (MPPM), Overlapping PPM (OPPM), PPM plus
Fig.2. Multiple-subcarriers modulation diagram
(PPM+), and hybrid PPM [10]-[13].
The drawback of AIM is that the becoming of progressive
d) Subcarrier Intensity Modulation (SCM)
nonlinear when it transmits at high power leading to
This modulation style is cost effective approach for
harmful for system when applying for multiplexing
exploiting bandwidth in analog communication. Applying
baseband system [8]. According to the properties of AIM
SCM for IM-DD scheme, its obstacle is the poor average
on limited bandwidth of optical source and non-linear
power efficiency. Meanwhile, its advantages are to reduce
characteristic, it is then not suitable for high frequency
multipath-induced ISI and to immune to some light noise
application.
from fluorescent.In Figure 2, basic structure of this
multiple subcarrier modulation is denoted where SM and
b) Digital Baseband Modulation: On/Off Keying (OOK)
SD refer to subcarrier modulator and subcarrier
This scheme is the simplest modulation technique in
demodulator respectively. Subsequently, there is the
which intensity of light if modulated directly from source
founding of its modulation styles such as: Binary Phase
of   binary   sequence.   Normally,   bit   “1”   represented   by  
Shift Keying (BPSK) and Quadrature Phase Shift Keying
optical pulse occupies entire bit duration, and  bit   “0”   is
(QPSK). Absolutely, they all require more optical power
represented by the absence optical pulse (dimming). Both
comparing to that OOK conventional modulation scheme.
of Non-Return Zero (NRZ) and Return Zero (RZ) from
the classical line coding patterns can be applied into this
More detail of SCM for VLC will be discussed in the
OOK. In the NRZ scheme, a pulse widthduration equaled
next section, where Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
to the bit duration, is  transmitted  to  represent  “1”  while  in  
(QAM) is used to modulate the different OFDM
the RZ scheme the pulse occupies only the partial interval
subcarriers [14].
time of bit [8].

c) Pulse Position Modulation (PPM) 2.2 VLC Channel Modeling

For VLC indoor applications, configuration can be
The previous simple OOK shows trade-off with low
classified according to the degree of transmitters, and
power efficiency. PPM as a category of Pulse Modulation
receiver’s   direction. Two main configuration of VLC
is then a solution. However, it spends high cost on the
propagation are Line of Sight (LOS) and non–Line of
increasing of bandwidth requirement and complexity.
Sight (N-LOS) propagation.
Principally, data sequence is firstly encoded within the
position of the pulse and the position of the pulse
a) Line of Sight - Indoor Propagation model
corresponding to the decimal value of the M-bit input
Figure 3 illustrates LOS propagation for indoor
data. WhereM is a positive integer standing for bit
environments. The radiant intensity is given as [15]:
resolution.Comparing to OOK, PPM has shorter slot
duration. From [9], the transmitted pulse shape is given (m1 +1)
by: S(∅)=  Pt cosm (∅) (2.6)
2π

1  fortϵ[(m-­1)TsPPM ,mTsPPM ] Where 𝑚1 is   the   Lambert’s   mode number expressing

x(t)PPM =   (2.4)
0,  elsewhere
Where m is 1, 2, 3 …  L (slot duration) and 𝑇𝑠𝑃𝑃𝑀 is slot
duration time. Hence the PPM symbol is:
directivity of source beam and Pt is the transmit power.
For the receiver, with an active area A, collecting of the
radiation incidents at angle Ф  smaller receiver’s  field of
view Ѱ . The optical power at receiver is given by:

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 530
Transmitter
Receiver
Fig. 3 Line of Sight model
λrH
Pr = ∑Ni=0 ∫ Sr (λ)Rf (λ)dλ (2.7)
λrL
Where 𝜆𝑟𝐿 and 𝜆𝑟𝐻 are lower and higher wavelength
bound of optical filter at receiver. 𝑆𝑟 (𝜆) and 𝑅 (𝜆) are
source and received radiant power density respectively.
b) Non – Line of Sight – Indoor propagation model
As shown in figure 4 for single reflection, non LOS
model assume of having some obstacles between
transmitter receiver area. This path loss model yields with
high complexity due to reflectivity of the ceiling, wall,
and other objects in the room. The receiver power is
defined as:
Pr-­nlos =(Hlos (0)+ ∑refl Hrefl (0))Pt (2.8)
Where ∅ = Ѱ are the incident angle of lightand 𝑑
and 𝑑 is distance from transmitter to ceiling and from
ceiling to receiver respectively. 𝐻𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑙 represents the
reflected path. Analyzing the distribution of optical power
of indoor optical channel as above, it could predict the
path loss for non-LOS and diffuse link. In addition apart
from these two indoor channel models, more
characterized ones are founded such as ceiling bounce
model introduced by Carruthers and Kahn [16],
Hayasaka-Ito model presented by Hayasakan [17], and
Spherical model for higher reflection [18].
c) Outdoor Channel
Outdoor channel is a complex and dynamic
environment leading to negative affected to the
characteristic of propagating optical beam.In summary,
outdoor channel propagation for VLC can be classified
into some main sub-models such as: Atmospheric
Channel Loss, Fog and Visibility, Beam Divergence,
Atmospheric Turbulence, Log-Normal Turbulence, and
Limit of log-normal Turbulence models.Outdoor
modeling was analyzed and introduced in [19].
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Ceiling
Transmitter
Receiver
Fig. 4. Non- LOS propagation model in VLC link
3. R&D Challenges on VLC
From all previous reviews, VLC has presented its high
potential on technological development. This section is
leading to its R&D challenges. Simply starting with figure
5, they could be considered based on the whole system
within a single diagram separating into related areas
linking to the transmitter, receiver, and its propagation
channel. Those are grouped partly into main subtopics as;
3.1 Increasing data rate
There are two main effects to the data rates including
LEDs limited bandwidth at the transmitter, and the slow
responding of detector at the receiver. Many interesting
researches are focused variously from hardware
integration improvement thru related high speed
electronic circuits/ drivers, to the front-end signal
processing. Those are, for examples, implementation of
optical filtering to block low frequency part of white light
as shown in [20], applying equalization technique to
enhance the performance [21], or even using better
modulation technique incorporation with multi-carrier
scheme such as OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing) and DMT (Discrete Multi-Tone).
a) Equalization techniques
Due to LEDs nonlinearity can reduce directly to VLC
modulation speed, thus equalization at transmitter (pre-
equalization) and/ or receiver (post-equalization) can be-
adopted to compensate that the rapid fall-off in
responding to the high frequencies of white LEDs. By
using pre-equalizer only and both pre- and post-
equalizers, performance of systems 40 Mb/s and 70 Mb/s
could be obtained in [21]. Also 100 Mb/s post-equalized
OOK have been demonstrated in [22].
There are a plenty of rooms for applying those
migrated techniques from RF wireless communications
into this kind of optical wireless platform. DMT is one of
that the promising for high speed target.
 531
Fig. 5 Configuration of a downlink VLC system, modified
from [23]
b) Using advance modulation techniques
From VLC modulation background that based on IM-
DD (non Coherent) where data does not carry in phase
oramplitude of transmitted light, it is modulated on
intensity of light and means that it cannot transmit a
negative or unreal intensity of light. Consequently,
complex or incorporated modulation method such as with
optical-OFDM and DMT are thus proposed to compatible
with these features. They are expected with better optical
power efficiency and higher data rates comparing to those
conventional modulations. Subsequently, developed
forms of OFDM for IM-DD such as: Direct Current-based
OFDM, asymmetrically clipped optical OFDM (ACO-
OFDM); pulse amplitude modulated discrete multi-tone
(PAM-DMT); asymmetrically clipped direct current
optical OFDM (ADO-OFDM); spectrally factorized
optical OFDM (SFO-OFDM), are then founded and
shown in [24] and [25]. Comparing to the conventional
OFDM using in RF communication, Optical-OFDM
adopts orthogonal signal and Hermitian symmetry to
directly provide a modulated real-valued. In [26] and [27],
231 Mb/s (using PIN Rx) and 513 Mb/s (using APD) are
achieved respectively by implementing the bit and power
loading techniques of the subcarriers of the OFDM signal.
Furthermore by using Discrete Multi-Tone Modulation
(DMT) in [20], a high speed system could reach up to 100
Mb/s.
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However, optical OFDM presents disadvantages of
characteristic high crest factor of the time domain signal
and occasionally requires of cyclic prefix (CP) due to the
tails of the impulse response. It causes to the reduction of
system throughputs. Therefore, OFDM system with high
PAPR would lead to difficulty to be controlled and
implemented. Most of this related research has then been
carrying on theoretical side. There is an experimental
system which is primarily aimed at demonstration of a
proof-of-concept for the approach to exploit the high
crest-factor in OFDM [28].
c) Parallel communication (Optical MIMO)
Multi-input multi-output (MIMO) which applied in
RF -communication, has revolutionized wireless
technology with significant gain. This MIMO is also the
challenge when considering with VLC in order to improve
the diffuse optical links with comparable data rates. It is
similar as that of RF but with less external interference
[29]. However, drawback of MIMO technique is that the
high path loss and the Lambertian scattering. In addition,
the narrow beam width and fading are also the significant
problems of MIMO-VLC. Besides, previous mentioned
OFDM as a modulation technique can be applied into
MIMO for obtaining reliability of very high data rate
transmission over broadband wireless channels.
3.2 Providing uplink channel
Providing a high speed VLC uplink channel is one of
those significant challenges. According to this issue,
combining VLC downlink with an RF uplink to provide
full duplex transmission was that the early stage VLC
development. However, that complicated hybrid system
between two techniques has turned on new other areas in
VLC community. There are other approaches considering
such as on uplink with infra-red wavelength, retro
reflector, or with flashlight LED in the portable device for
the upstream communication [30].
3.3 Dimming Control
In order to avoiding brightness pollution and waste
power consumption especially during unused lighting (or
turning off period), VLC system should be able to operate
at various optical peak to average power ratios (PAPR) to
provide a continuous data connection. There are various
proposed methods for this purpose such as AM-dimming
(controlling DC forward current injected in to the LED),
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) (controlling the width of
the current pulse, thus the average current fed into the
LED) [31], and Pulse Frequency Modulation (PFM)
(controlling frequency of the constant width pulses and
the average current driven into the LED). However these
techniques require large bandwidth, therefore they are
difficult to implement for high data rate system as their
disadvantage.
 532
3.4 Multipath dispersion in the channel
Multipath dispersion in indoor VLC system is that the
receiver detects not only the direct LOS signals from the
transmitter but also the optical energy reflected from the
surfaces of walls and others in that VLC serving area. It
causes to the limit of data rate in this kind of diffused
channels. This is due to the phase of the signal shifting in
this multipath dispersion, transforms into signal
distortion. Also, the delayed signals from one symbol may
interfere with the next adjacent signal, giving rise to ISI
(Inter Symbol Interference) [32].
Consideration on this obstacle, it leads to various of
specific R&D topics those challenges for searching on
proper solutions. It is noted that traditional radio wireless
communication techniques which using to mitigate
similar ISI, has been considering to be modified and
adopted gradually.
3.5 User Mobility
Technically, mobility can be one of those two basic
types: physical and logical. For VLC, it has been
considering to providing a low-mobility indoor
environment. That is an extreme from those of high-
mobility cellular systems. Absolutely, VLC is a new
focused area when including handover method as well.
Again, traditional related wireless communication
techniques for devices or users mobility, also has been
considering to be modified and adopted in this light wave
communication platform.
3.6 Illumination standards
Similarly to those previous communication
industries, VLC standards have been announced and
proposed. There is such as by the Visible Light
Communication Consortium (VLCC) in 2007. VLCC
proposed two JEITA (Japan Electronics and Information
Technology Industries Association) VLC standards.
Those are visible Light Communication System Standard
and the Visible Light ID System Standard. For instance in
detail from [2], it presented minimum indicators in order
to prevent the interference between different optical
communication equipment, and defines minimum
necessary requirement in various visible light
communication applications.
Another, IEEE 802.15.7 VLC is that the standard of a
PHY (physical layer) and MAC (media-access control)
layer for short-range optical wireless communications
using visible light summarizing. It is summarized in table
2 [33].
4. VLC Applications
Eventually, LEDs which has been using for lighting
solely from the beginning of its discovery, is now founded
with supreme value added of data integration. It is then
not only providing for illumination but also for the control
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and communications. There are several attractive
applications selected as:
4.1 Smart Lighting
Controlled LEDs as a smart lighting system can
provide smart power consumption on illumination. In
conjunction with its high speed communications, VLC
can be used to serve users for multi-purposes in smart
home & office/ factory consequently.
4.2 Mobile connectivity
Visible light communication could be considered for
mobile phone (voice)application. It would serve with a
very high speed data link as well. With inherent security
by pointing a visible light at focused devices, it is a new
promising app to provide much higher data rate than those
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or other personal wireless area network
candidates.
4.3 Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS)
Generally, LEDs have been using in street lamps,
traffic lights &signals, and etc. They are also expecting to
be applied for automotive field to communicate audio or
data between cars (Car-2-Car), traffic infrastructure and
cars, robots, or even between aircraft. There are several
demonstrations known as vehicle to vehicle and road-to-
vehicle communications [6]. Those ideas are, for
example, by using LED light as a transmitter and the
camera is mounted before the front end of the car as a
receiver, high-speed data transmission with multiple data
can be achieved.
4.4 High speed video transmission
VLC is one of a potential platform for a very high
speed video transmission. Providing an effective protocol
is one of the challenges of ongoing research and
application. Specially, poor streaming video would be
neglected when VLC reaches to G b/s regime.
4.5 Localization: Household robots and others
VLC when implemented fully on above covering area,
it could then consider as an indoor GPS providing fixed
positioning data for similar outdoor or satellite
GPS.However, VLC is served in much smaller area it then
leads to higher accuracy positioning. Therefore, its
application is highly promising such as for modern
household robot.Users could easily control or command
their robots to perform tasks with more accuracy and more
convenient than using those classical navigation system.
Also, applications for localization and guidance to disable
people (blind), VLC as an indoor GPS could be applied.
4.6 Others
There are many others potential applications to be
implemented with VLC. Those are; museum information
via lighting, build-in data via LED advertising, and
mobile applications.
 533

Table 2: Summarized IEEE802.15.7 Table 3: Important achievement summary in VLC

Entity Characteristics Speed BW

Group BER Distance
- Star Gbps (Mhz)
MAC Supported Topology - Peer-to-peer Scuola
- Broadcast 1.5
SuperiorSant’   1
- 16 bit × 10
Addressing Anna, Italy [34]
- 64 bit
Yes Oxford/llmenau
- Scheduled /France 1.25 < 10 3m
Collision avoidance - Slotted random Telecom [35]
scheme access ScuolaSuperior Note:
withcollision 2
eSant’  Anna,   3.4 280 WDM is
avoidance × 10
Italy [36] applied
Acknowledgement Yes
inherently encoded in visual displays. A prototype of a
- Infrastructure mobile app running our propriety algorithm to enable any
Device Classification - Mobile smart phones with this software obtain information from
- Vehicle
LED panels or displays that transmit data, has been
- OOK developed. Next, this system can be extended to provide
Modulation Scheme - VPPM services based on webs.
- CSK

|Preamble|PHY Header| References

PHY Frame Structure
HCS| Optional Fields| PSDU|
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