Wireless Internet service providing for 5G with hybrid TV broadcast and visible light communications

Abstract

Visible light communications (VLC) is a potential candidate to be utilized in future 5G networks with energy efficient indoor and outdoor communications with available hardware components such as LED bulbs, TV screens and camera receivers. In this article, a low cost cellular infrastructure is proposed for Internet service providing (ISP). Hybrid TV radio frequency (RF) broadcast and display screen based VLC transmitters are utilized for the downlink while telescopes, camera receivers and LED arrays placed on the roofs of the houses are utilized for the uplink. In the downlink, display screens with quantum dot (QD), organic light emitting diode (OLED) and liquid-crystal display (LCD) technologies are compared in terms of response time, color gamut, spectral color output, contrast ratio and power consumption. Uplink capacity reaches hundreds of Kbit/s data rates for hundreds of houses at tens of kilometer distances with a simple and low cost system with less than hundred watts power consumption at each house while downlink capacity promises several Mbit/s at each house.