Enabling Technologies and New Challenges in IEEE 802.15.7 Optical Camera Communications Standard

In this article, we present a tutorial on recent optical camera communication (OCC) technologies that deploy light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and image sensors. The article contains a discussion on the amendment of the IEEE 802.15.7-2018 standard, termed the IEEE 802.15.7a (TG7a) Higher Rate, Longer Range OCC Task Group, which has a significant influence on the advancement of OCC technology. In addition, the tutorial article presents the enabling technical issues in TG7a and a comparison with the existing standard. The current status, new challenges, and future directions of research and development are also discussed.