Channel Characteristics of Visible Light Communications Within Dynamic Indoor Environment

Visible light communications (VLC) is a new emerging technology, which provides both data transmission and illumination by utilizing the visible range (370-780 nm) of the electromagnetic spectrum. In order to maximize the available data rate and enhance the users mobility within an indoor environment, it is essential to characterize the communication channel. In this paper, we present both analytical and experimental results for a VLC system affected by movement of people for different indoor conditions (i.e., furnished office room, empty hall, and corridor). VLC systems utilize multiple light-emitting diodes mounted in the ceiling and the configuration is based on the nondirected line of sight. We consider random movement of people within the room, focusing on the impacts of shadowing and blocking on mobility and link system performance by investigating changes in the channel characteristics using the cumulative distribution function of the received power distribution and the delay profile. We demonstrate the behaviour of communication channels for different scenarios from corridor, the most robust against people movement induced fading, to the office rooms and halls, the most vulnerable to the received power fluctuation.