Design and Implementation for a Duplex Visible Light Communication Link

This paper presents the hardware design and implementation of a duplex visible light communication link. Our VLC link uses two wavelengths: visible light in the downlink and infrared light in the uplink. The prototype is compatible with a universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter and achieves a baud rate of 4 Mbps. The prototype uses light-emitting diodes used for lighting purposes, infrared light-emitting diodes used for infrared CMOS camera illumination, and other readily available components. The receivers use PIN photodiode detectors for the appropriate wavelength. The designed link can be used as a test-bed for media access control testing.