Survey on optical camera communications: challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Wireless technologies based on radio frequencies (RFs) have always dominated other types of wireless technologies up until now. However, the recent proliferation of media-rich smart devices has pushed the RF spectrum usage to its limit. Therefore RF band expansion towards the optical spectrum is imminent in commercial scale. Indeed, the research on wireless communications using the optical spectrum has gained tremendous ground during the past couple of decades and standardised, respectively, by infrared data association for infrared communication and IEEE 802.15.7 for visible light communication. However, only few shortcomings of the IEEE 802.15.7 standard have led to the development of a revised version, called IEEE 802.15.7r1. This article provides an insight on the activity of the proposed revision of IEEE 802.15.7r1. The proposed revision version targets communication systems that mainly use either image sensors or cameras, known as the optical camera communications (OCC). Leveraging the existing infrastructure, OCC systems will be able to provide ubiquitous coverage in both indoors and outdoors. The authors present their survey focusing on the key technology consideration in IEEE 802.15.7r1, current research status, impairments, enhancements and futuristic application scenarios of the OCC systems.

Smartphone Camera-Based Optical Wireless Communication System: Requirements and Implementation Challenges

“…The OCC system comprises LEDs and image sensors (cameras) which are used as transmitters and receivers, respectively. Moreover, LEDs are used in almost every light-based application, such as indoor illumination, street signals, and car tail lights and headlights [9]. They quickly switch between the ON and OFF states.…”

Optimization of Visible-Light Optical Wireless Systems: Network-Centric Versus User-Centric Designs

“…There are also several survey papers on specific indepth aspects of VLC systems [15]- [20]. For example, Saha et al [15] reviewed the key techniques in optical camera communication systems by considering the IEEE standard.…”

“…For example, Saha et al [15] reviewed the key techniques in optical camera communication systems by considering the IEEE standard. Qiu et al [16] reviewed the state-of-the-art in VLC channel modelling methods, in order to provide a better insight into the theoretical basis of VLC system design, while the optical background noise sources and the corresponding noise reduction techniques of VLC systems were investigated by Sindhubala and Vijayalakshmi [18].…”

Optical Lensless-Camera Communications Aided by Neural Network

“…The high popularity of communication devices and the natural integration with new technologies, known as the "internet of things", optical camera communications (OCC) [1,2] has become a promising technology in the field of visible light communications (VLC). In addition, IEEE 802.15.7r1 as the official standard of OCC further promotes OCC standardization development [3].…”