A System Enabling 1.5-km Omnidirectional Visible Light Communication Through Navigation Light

Maritime transportation plays a crucial role in facilitating global trade, and navigation lights, which serve as traffic lights for ships, are key devices for nighttime navigation. Beyond lighting, light-emitting diode navigation lights can also be used as a transmitter to enable visible light communication (VLC) for broadcasting and smart navigation. To this end, a long-distance transmission model under weak light conditions has been developed. The transmitter uses a navigation light and employs an on-off keying modulation for data transmission. A spinal code is used to guarantee data integrity in the long-distance channel. The receiver relies on a photomultiplier tube for signal reception and successfully achieves 1600-bit/s information transmission over 1.5 km. This accomplishment illustrates the viability of employing VLC technology in navigation lights an represents a significant milestone in establishing the foundation for long-range and omnidirectional optical communication within the VLC domain.