Visible Light Communication with Solar Cell Receiver for Indoor IoT Applications

The rapid increase of Internet of Things (IoT) devices has ushered in a new era of connectivity, with an increasing reliance on efficient communication models. In this context, Optical Wireless Communications (OWC) presents a promising avenue for transmitting data at the speed of light, utilizing the optical spectrum to alleviate congestion in urban environments. Leveraging Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) as transmitters and solar cells as receivers, this paper explores the feasibility of indoor OWC systems. Moreover, we present an experimental setup focusing on bandwidth measurement, data transmission, and energy harvesting. Our results indicate a maximum data rate of 19.2 Kbps using On-Off Keying (OOK) modulation at a 15 cm link distance. Notably, by avoiding the utilization of external circuitry for performance enhancement of the solar cell, we tried to maintain the system’s suitability for IoT applications. Our findings contribute to understanding solar cell-based data reception from LEDs, offering simulation results for practical implementation and performance considerations for indoor IoT communication systems.