Visible Light Communication and Radio Network for Vehicular Environment

Visible Light Communication (VLC) technology is an emerging technology which promises to offer high data rate, last mile solution, ubiquitous communications, and relief to the most congested radio frequency RF system. Recently, VLC has drawn the attention of researchers around the globe and they are still exploring the applications and services which can be offered by this technology. In this work, a conceptual architecture of hybrid technology that is, VLC with RF is presented and discussed for vehicular environment. The idea is to provide relief to RF spectrum by using downlink signal with VLC technology and uplink transmission using RF. This RF could be a cellular system and/or wireless local area networks (WLAN) working as road side unit (RSU). Analysis is presented to show the VLC system would offer ubiquitous communication on road throughout the driving while illuminating road for the safe drive. Through simulation results, it is shown that the system offers high data rate in the downlink. However, for the uplink, road side units from RF technology based system offer the access to data services.