Lighting the Wireless World: The Promise and Challenges of Visible Light Communication

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are becoming increasingly ubiquitous. They can be found in illumination appliances, phones, TVs, advertising panels, dashboards, and traffic signals, among others. Most illumination applications are becoming LED based, mainly due to their long operational lifetime and high energy efficiency, which is nowadays higher than 100 lm/W. Other benefits include enhanced sustainability, a compact form factor, easier maintenance, and lower cost. For these reasons, LED lighting is expected to have a market share of 84% in the general illumination market by 2030. However, there is another characteristic that is not being fully exploited: LEDs are capable of switching their light intensity at a rate that is imperceptible to the human eye. This property has been used for dimming purposes but can also be utilized in the opportunistic deployment of value-added services based on visible light communication (VLC).