Experimental Validation of Simultaneous Power and Data Transfer over Solar Panels for 5G and Future Network

Light communication technology offers a promising solution to future networks demand, providing the necessary speed, latency, and reliability for a network. However, in conventional optical receivers such as silicon photodiodes, the small area of the optical receiver causes misalignment or limited orientation and they also require an external supply to operate. There is a need for an optical receiver with a large surface area and that is self-sustainable. Solar panels present a potential solution with their large receiver area and ability to generate electrical energy from optical light intensity. This paper presents an experimental investigation into the feasibility of using large cell size solar panels for simultaneous power generation and data transmission. An analog circuitry is designed to enhance the solar panel’s bandwidth, enabling it to function as both a power source and an optical receiver for high speed data transfer. The experimental results are obtained for a 2 m indoor link distance. The larger solar panel generates 38.4 mW of power with a data rate of 1.84 Mbps, while the smaller panel produces 4.5 mW of power with a data rate of 12.4 Mbps. Although the circuitry improves bandwidth, inherent capacitive effects cause signal distortion, leading to some information loss. These findings highlight the potential for integrating solar panels into vehicular platoon communication systems, and future work will focus on testing in outdoor environments to maximize power harvesting.