Advances in Radio, Visible Light Communications, and Fiber Optics

A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Microwave and Wireless Communications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2023) | Viewed by 18775

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Electronic Technology and Reliability Department, Politehnica University of Bucharest, 061071 Bucharest, Romania
Interests: image processing; audio processing; adaptive systems; multimedia forensics; embedded systems; electronic circuits; visible light communications
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Guest Editor
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Interests: software defined networking; Internet of Things; network data analytics; precision agriculture; environmental management
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Guest Editor
Department Electrical Engineering, Universidad de Oviedo, 33204 Gijón, Spain
Interests: switching-mode power converters; the use of wide bandgap semiconductors in power converters; light-emitting diodes drivers for visible light communication and power-supply systems for RF amplifiers
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The effervescence of the communication field is growing, especially with the maturation of technologies that use visible light as the information carrier, complementing the use of radio and fiber optics. Radio communication advances in the context of 5G/6G are complemented by the major advantage of visible light communications (VLC) in using LEDs as emitters, therefore potentially transforming ambient and utility lighting systems into communication devices, resulting in an environment filled with challenges, which is currently under intense research. Smartphone cameras are becoming increasingly advanced, capturing a high number of frames per second or featuring very fast shutter speeds, contributing to the development of optical camera communication (OCC) systems based on mobile devices. This mixed communication infrastructure, based on the three pillars of radio, visible light communications and fiber optics, is a strong foundation for new Internet of Things (IoT) scenarios.

The main objective of this Special Issue is to provide original and high-quality contributions that address both theoretical and practical aspects of systems development in radio communications, optical communications (OC), visible light communications, optical camera communications (OCC) and the Internet of Things (IoT). It will highlight state-of-the-art research and innovative applications and provide new perspectives for future initiatives and challenges.

The topics of interest include but are not limited to:

  • New applications of radio/OC/VLC/OCC systems;
  • Video processing for OCC;
  • Visible light positioning (VLP);
  • V2X/IoT/smart city systems;
  • Electronic circuits for modulation/demodulation;
  • Efficient driver and receiver design, noise characterization;
  • Security issues for radio/OC/VLC/OCC/IoT;
  • Machine learning strategies for VLC/OCC;
  • Information theory for VLC;
  • Coding and modulation for VLC;
  • Efficient signal processing for VLC;
  • Underwater VLC systems;
  • Diversity/MIMO technique implementation.

Dr. Robert Alexandru Dobre
Dr. Declan T. Delaney
Dr. Juan Rodríguez Méndez
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • wireless communications
  • Internet of Things (IoT)
  • optical communications (OC)
  • visible light communications (VLC)
  • optical camera communications (OCC)
  • electronic design

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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31 pages, 10429 KiB  
Article
A High-Accuracy, Scalable and Affordable Indoor Positioning System Using Visible Light Positioning for Automated Guided Vehicles
by Aleix Boixader, Carlos Labella, Marisa Catalan and Josep Paradells
Electronics 2024, 13(1), 82; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13010082 - 23 Dec 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1867
Abstract
Indoor Positioning Systems (IPSs) have multiple applications. For example, they can be used to guide people, to locate items in a warehouse and to support the navigation of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV). Currently most AGVs use local pre-defined navigation systems, but they lack [...] Read more.
Indoor Positioning Systems (IPSs) have multiple applications. For example, they can be used to guide people, to locate items in a warehouse and to support the navigation of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV). Currently most AGVs use local pre-defined navigation systems, but they lack a global localisation system. Integrating both systems is uncommon due to the inherent challenge in balancing accuracy with coverage. Visible Light Position (VLP) offers accurate and fast localisation, but it encounters scalability limitations. To overcome this, this paper presents a novel Image Sensor-based VLP (IS-VLP) identification method that harnesses existing Light Emitting Diode (LED) lighting infrastructure to substitute both navigation and localisation systems effectively in the whole area. We developed an IPS that achieves six-axis positioning at 90 Hz refresh rate using OpenCV’s solvePnP algorithm and embedded computing. This IPS has been validated in a laboratory environment and successfully deployed in a real factory to position an operative AGV. The system has resulted in accuracies better than 12 cm for 95% of the measurements. This work advances towards positioning VLP as an appealing choice for IPS in industrial environments, offering an inexpensive, scalable, accurate and robust solution. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Radio, Visible Light Communications, and Fiber Optics)
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13 pages, 680 KiB  
Article
Adaptive-Mode PAPR Reduction Algorithm for Optical OFDM Systems Leveraging Lexicographical Permutations
by Roland Niwareeba, Mitchell A. Cox and Ling Cheng
Electronics 2023, 12(13), 2797; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12132797 - 24 Jun 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2055
Abstract
In direct current optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DCO-OFDM) systems, the high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) has been a significant challenge. Recently, lexicographical symbol position permutation (LSPP) using random permutations has been introduced as an efficient solution to reduce high PAPR. In this [...] Read more.
In direct current optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DCO-OFDM) systems, the high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) has been a significant challenge. Recently, lexicographical symbol position permutation (LSPP) using random permutations has been introduced as an efficient solution to reduce high PAPR. In this paper, we aim to evaluate the effectiveness of LSPP by comparing both adjacent and interleaved lexicographical permutation sequences with random lexicographical permutation sequences. Our findings demonstrate that random permutation yields superior PAPR reduction performance results when compared to adjacent and interleaved permutation. However, in scenarios with a limited number of sub-blocks, the use of adjacent and interleaved permutation becomes more favorable, as they can eliminate the possibility of generating identical permutation sequences, a drawback of random permutation. Additionally, we propose a novel algorithm to determine the optimal number of candidate permutation sequences that can achieve acceptable PAPR reduction performance while adhering to computational complexity constraints defined by the system requirements. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Radio, Visible Light Communications, and Fiber Optics)
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16 pages, 5887 KiB  
Article
Design of Optical-Wireless IR-UWBoF Systems with Spectral Line Suppression Capabilities
by Aldo-Eleazar Perez-Ramos, Salvador Villarreal-Reyes, Alejandro Galaviz-Mosqueda and Catherine Lepers
Electronics 2022, 11(21), 3496; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11213496 - 28 Oct 2022
Viewed by 1550
Abstract
Impulse-Radio Ultra-Wide Band (IR-UWB) over Fiber (IR-UWBoF) has been proposed to interconnect IR-UWB-based deployments separated by hundreds of meters or even kilometers. IR-UWB transmissions must comply with spectral masks provided by radio spectrum regulatory agencies. The maximum transmit power of an IR-UWB signal [...] Read more.
Impulse-Radio Ultra-Wide Band (IR-UWB) over Fiber (IR-UWBoF) has been proposed to interconnect IR-UWB-based deployments separated by hundreds of meters or even kilometers. IR-UWB transmissions must comply with spectral masks provided by radio spectrum regulatory agencies. The maximum transmit power of an IR-UWB signal is adversely affected by the presence of spectral lines in its Power Spectral Density (PSD). Thus, it is desirable that the PSD of signals generated by IR-UWBoF systems does not show spectral lines. Previous works have shown the feasibility of deploying of optical-wireless IR-UWBoF systems. However, most of these proposals report PSDs showing spectral lines. To the best of our knowledge, spectral line suppression has not been previously studied for optical-wireless IR-UWBoF systems. This work shows the design and implementation of optical-wireless IR-UWBoF systems generating signals with Spectral Line-Free (SLF) PSDs. The proposal considers the use the use of a specifically designed convolutional code combined with Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) or Quaternary Biorthogonal Pulse Position Modulation (Q-BOPPM) to provide a SLF PSD in IR-UWBoF systems. A testbed consisting of 30 km of single-mode optical fiber (SMF) concatenated to a 20 cm wireless link was physically implemented. The results show that a SLF PSD is achieved for both the optical and the wireless transmissions, even when the binary data source feeding the system is not perfectly random. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Radio, Visible Light Communications, and Fiber Optics)
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12 pages, 2276 KiB  
Article
Dimming Control Scheme of Visible Light Communication Based on Joint Multilevel Time-Shifted Coding
by Lin Li, Jia-Ning Guo, Qi Wu and Jian Zhang
Electronics 2022, 11(10), 1602; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11101602 - 18 May 2022
Viewed by 1682
Abstract
Dimming control is an essential objection in the signal designing of visible light communication (VLC), which requires improving the communication performance of the system as much as possible while considering the illumination quality. Here, we studied the problem of high-efficiency transmission in an [...] Read more.
Dimming control is an essential objection in the signal designing of visible light communication (VLC), which requires improving the communication performance of the system as much as possible while considering the illumination quality. Here, we studied the problem of high-efficiency transmission in an indoor VLC multi-core light-emitting diode (LED) communication model while considering dimming constraints, and propose a dimming method based on joint multilevel multi-LED time-shifted coding (ML-MTSC). The scheme utilizes the code structure of time-shifted space–time codes to encode and uses pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) to expand it to achieve the dimming control function in the proposed scenario. Simulation results show that the ML-MTSC dimming control scheme proposed in this paper has improved spectral efficiency and error performance compared with the traditional scheme. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Radio, Visible Light Communications, and Fiber Optics)
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18 pages, 1133 KiB  
Article
Flexible Design of Low-Delay MEC-VLC Integrating Network Based on Attocell Overlap for IIoT
by Jingshu Xue, Ziwei Ye, Haiyong Zhang and Yijun Zhu
Electronics 2022, 11(6), 924; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11060924 - 16 Mar 2022
Viewed by 1992
Abstract
Recently, multi-access edge computing (MEC) cooperating with fifth-generation (5G) mobile communication technology or WiFi has been widely discussed for low-delay systems. However, for the Industrial Internet of Things, which raises higher requirements on system delay, security, capacity, etc., visible light communication (VLC) has [...] Read more.
Recently, multi-access edge computing (MEC) cooperating with fifth-generation (5G) mobile communication technology or WiFi has been widely discussed for low-delay systems. However, for the Industrial Internet of Things, which raises higher requirements on system delay, security, capacity, etc., visible light communication (VLC) has better adaptability due to its controllable attocells. Therefore, we establish a computation and transmission integrated system with MEC-VLC as the main body. To solve the imbalance of resource utilization caused by users’ movement in intensive attocells, we propose a series of flexible design schemes based on access points’ cooperation in attocell overlapping areas. We formulate the overlap-based low-delay flexible system design as an optimization problem and then design the system based on it. Specifically, we first give an attocell-associated congestion judgment criterion and correspondingly propose a user discard algorithm. After that, we offer an iterative optimization method for task assignment, which adjusts computing-transmitting units’ cooperation mode to enhance the overall time delay. Then, the computing and transmitting resources are jointly allocated for delay reduction. Finally, our simulation demonstrates that the overlap-based design has a lower user discard ratio than the traditional distance-based system. The maximum delay and standard deviation are also reduced. Consequently, the flexible design based on attocell overlap can improve the reliability, capacity, and fairness of the low-delay integrating system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Radio, Visible Light Communications, and Fiber Optics)
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17 pages, 768 KiB  
Article
O2O: An Underwater VLC Approach in Baltic and North Sea
by Mohammad Furqan Ali, Tharindu Dilshan Ponnimbaduge Perera and Dushantha Nalin K. Jayakody
Electronics 2022, 11(3), 321; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11030321 - 20 Jan 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4242
Abstract
Recently, underwater visible light communication (UVLC) has become a potential wireless carrier candidate in the acrimonious mingled ocean straits. The combined strait of the North and Baltic ocean is a harsh and strongly turbid aqueous zone that contributes signal fading at a large [...] Read more.
Recently, underwater visible light communication (UVLC) has become a potential wireless carrier candidate in the acrimonious mingled ocean straits. The combined strait of the North and Baltic ocean is a harsh and strongly turbid aqueous zone that contributes signal fading at a large scale. Due to this, we are proposing a UVLC system within the Baltic–North ocean mingled water under strong turbulence channel conditions. In this study, the Gamma–Gamma distribution is used to model UVLC link under an OOK modulation scheme. Subsequently, the reason for the unavailability of the latest North–Baltic oceanographic data within this bayou, we investigate the BER and outage probability performance of the proposed system within the mingled strait for the whole year during 1996s. Throughout, this work, the performance is obtained individually in both of the oceans and then compared with the heterogeneous state. It is noteworthy that the analytical work has been considered of the following distinct physio-chemical properties and the data provided for each ocean. Additionally, the simulation results are verified the analytical work of the proposed system model. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Radio, Visible Light Communications, and Fiber Optics)
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Review

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12 pages, 5584 KiB  
Review
GaN Laser Diode Technology for Visible-Light Communications
by Stephen P. Najda, Piotr Perlin, Tadek Suski, Lucja Marona, Mike Leszczyński, Przemek Wisniewski, Szymon Stanczyk, Dario Schiavon, Thomas Slight, Malcolm A. Watson, Steffan Gwyn, Anthony E. Kelly and Scott Watson
Electronics 2022, 11(9), 1430; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11091430 - 29 Apr 2022
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4039
Abstract
Gallium nitride (GaN) laser diodes (LDs) are considered for visible light communications (VLC) in free space, underwater, and in plastic optical fibers (POFs). A review of recent results is presented, showing high-frequency operation of AlGaInN laser diodes with data transmission rates up to [...] Read more.
Gallium nitride (GaN) laser diodes (LDs) are considered for visible light communications (VLC) in free space, underwater, and in plastic optical fibers (POFs). A review of recent results is presented, showing high-frequency operation of AlGaInN laser diodes with data transmission rates up to 2.5 Gbit/s in free space and underwater and high bandwidths of up to 1.38 GHz through 10 m of plastic optical fiber. Distributed feedback (DFB) GaN LDs are fabricated to achieve single-frequency operation. We report on single-wavelength emissions of GaN DFB LDs with a side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) in excess of 35 dB. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Radio, Visible Light Communications, and Fiber Optics)
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