A practical in-home illumination consideration to reduce data rate fluctuation in visible light communication

Visible light communication based on LED has attracted more and more attention. As the primary function of LED luminaries is optimized for lighting and illumination, it challenges the communication properties of VLC. An investigation based on different in-home illumination conditions using commercially available whitelight LED luminaries to optimize both illumination and communication is highly desirable. In this work, we investigate joint illumination and communication systems to provide an in-home lighting and VLC system. We first focus on the performance constraints set by illumination properties and discuss lighting conditions using different kinds of commercially available luminaries, beam angles, and LED lamp arrangements, and consider reflections off different wall materials. Then we propose and experimentally demonstrate a white-light phosphor-based LED adaptive data rate VLC system. Finally, the achievable data rates of a joint illumination and VLC system are discussed based on the experimental results, and an environment with reduced VLC data rate fluctuation can be achieved.