MirrorVLC: Optimal Mirror Placement for Multi-Element VLC Networks

Abstract

Visible Light Communication (VLC) is a rapidly growing technology which can supplement the current radio-frequency (RF) based wireless communication systems. VLC can play a huge part in solving the ever-increasing problem of spectrum scarcity because of the growing availability of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs). One of the biggest advantages of VLC over other communication systems is that it can provide illumination and data communication simultaneously without needing any extra deployment. Although it is essential to provide data rate at a blazing speed to all the users nowadays, maintaining a satisfactory level in the distribution of lighting is also important. In this paper, we present a novel approach of using mirrors to enhance the illumination uniformity and throughput of an indoor multi-element VLC system architecture. In this approach, we improve the Signal-to-Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR) of the system and overall illumination uniformity of the room by redirecting the reflected LED beams on the walls to darker spots with the use of mirrors. We formulate a joint optimization problem focusing on maximization of the SINR while maintaining a reasonable illumination uniformity across the room. We propose a two-stage solution of the optimization problem: design solution and communication solution. In the design optimization, we formulate an equivalent binary linear optimization to achieve the best illumination quality by optimizing the mirror placements and the LEDs' transmit powers. In the communication problem, however, we aim to improve the throughput of the system using a fair utility metric based on maximizing the minimum user's data rate. Due to non-convexity of the communication problem, we propose three different heuristic solutions and analyze their performance. We also show that about threefold increase in average illumination and fourfold increase in average throughput can be achieved when the mirror placement is applied which is a significant performance improvement.

Department(s)

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Keywords and Phrases

Illumination Uniformity; Interference; Joint Optimization; Light Emitting Diodes; Lighting; Mirrors; Optimization; Receivers; Visible Light Communication; Wireless Communication

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1558-2248; 1536-1276

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2022 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2022

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