Towards a visible light network architecture for continuous communication and localization
Visible light communication (VLC) technology piggybacks on legacy illumination infrastructure, and creates a communication channel by modulating LEDs' light emission patterns. Existing VLC research mostly focused on improving single link communication capacity, or localizing a single static handset equipped with light sensors. In this paper, we advance this technology to the next layer, and propose an integrated visible light network (VLN) architecture that aims to realize continuous communication coverage and location tracking for indoor mobile devices. Our VLN architecture uses a powerline backbone together with a backend server to centrally control and coordinate ceiling mounted LED access points (APs) The LED APs are dynamically clustered depending on the client location, and tightly synchronize and cooperate with each other, in order to enhance link quality and spatial diversity, thus smoothing the client's transition between cells and alleviating the impact of device motion, body shadowing, etc. We have proto typed the VLN architecture using customized hardware platform and an entire software defined network stack. Preliminary results demonstrate the feasibility of the VLN concept, and potential of the architectural design.
VLCS '16