Hardware design of a prototyping platform for vehicular VLC using SDR and exploiting vehicles CAN bus

Ever-increasing world population in big cities demands intelligent transportation systems (ITS) that are efficient and resilient, which in turn need a practical communication paradigm for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), and infrastructure-to-vehicle (I2V) communication. Visible light communications (VLC) open new alternative technologies that use a license-free spectral band, with several Terahertz of bandwidth. Those technologies will be cost-effective because LED infrastructure is already widely deployed in traffic lights, car lights and signs. To start experimenting with VLC, software defined radios (SDRs) are a versatile platform that, combined with an LED and a Photodetector, can rapidly prototype systems. Data from the vehicle can be gathered by reading its control area network bus (CAN Bus), where all the electronic sensors and actuators are connected. This paper shows the design of a VLC platform based on SDRs, capable of prototyping various communication schemes in outdoor and indoor scenarios. Also, the design of a CAN Bus reading interface is shown. Both systems, the VLC platform and the CAN Bus interface, are combined to make an ITS communication system prototype based on VLC.