Combination of visible light and radio frequency bands for device-to-device communication

Abstract

Future mobile networks are supposed to serve high data rates required by users. To accommodate the high data rates, a direct communication between nearby mobile terminals (MTs), known as Device-to-device (D2D) communication, can be exploited. Furthermore, a communication in high frequency bands, such as, visible light communication (VLC), is also foreseen as an enabler for the high data rates. In conventional D2D communication, pairs of the MTs should reuse the same frequencies to keep a high spectral efficiency of the system. However, this implies either interference among the D2D pairs or utilization of complex and advanced resource allocation algorithms. In this paper, we propose a new concept for D2D communication combining VLC and RF technologies in order to maximize capacity of the system. This paper provides an analysis of the operational limits for the proposed concept and investigates capacity gains introduced by the combined usage of RF and VLC bands for D2D. Moreover, we discuss several practical issues related to the proposed RF-VLC D2D concept. Performed analyses show that the RF-VLC D2D is able to improve the capacity in an indoor scenario by a factor of 4.1 and 1.5 when compared to stand-alone RF D2D and VLC D2D, respectively.

Hybrid RF/VLC Systems: A Comprehensive Survey on Network Topologies, Performance Analyses, Applications, and Future Directions

“…IoT and device-to-device (D2D) communication applications were addressed in [148], [175], [195], [204]- [206]. In [148], authors introduced a new evolutionary game theory (EGT) algorithm that allows the users to adapt their needs to the hybrid RF and Li-Fi network.…”

Efficient Exploitation of Radio Frequency and Visible Light Communication Bands for D2D in Mobile Networks

“…The DUEs are assumed to be equipped with an RGBbased light-emitting diode (LED) and a photodetector for transmitting and receiving the optical signal in VLC D2D, respectively. Irradiance angle (φ) and incidence angle (ψ) (i.e., users' directions) influencing the VLC performance [10] are either set to zero (i.e., angles are optimal), or generated according to Gaussian distribution [19]. The D2D pairs communicating over the RF band suffer from an interference caused by the active users communicating in the neighboring cells.…”

“…We assume the scenario, which is identified as the most beneficial for the whole RF-VLC D2D concept [19]. More specifically, we consider an indoor area (representing, e.g., a room or a hall) without any indoor walls.…”

“…The first case is represented by optimal angles (φ and ψ are set to zero), where the users direct their DUEs perfectly towards each other. The second and the third case are represented by Gaussian distribution of the irradiance and incidence angles (φ and ψ) of every DUE T and DUE R of the same D2D pair as in [19], with a mean of 0 • and a standard deviation of 30 • and 60 • , respectively. The simulation consists of 3000 drops, where for each drop the positions and the angles of the all DUEs are generated independently.…”

“…In contrast, VLC as an out-band D2D technology has been considered in several recent studies. While [17] and [18] study only a standalone VLC for D2D, a combination of RF and VLC bands for D2D communication has been initially studied in [19], where potential benefits and performance limits of the hybrid RF/VLC D2D are shown. However, the paper focuses only on a simplified scenario considering just two D2D pairs, which is not very realistic in future mobile networks with a high density of users.…”