A Novel Optimization Approach for Transmitter Semi-Angle and Multiple Transmitter Configurations in Indoor Visible Light Communication Links

Abstract

Visible light communication (VLC) is undoubtedly a very promising solution to tackle the ever-increasing demand for wireless network traffic. It uses light emitting diodes (LEDs), installed for illumination, to transfer high speed data. The performance of indoor VLC links depends on the optical power distribution obtained on the receiver plane. This paper studies the effect of semi-angle at half maxima of LED transmitters and the spatial configuration of LED panels on the distribution of received optical power in indoor VLC links. We show that if the semi-angle is reduced, the average received optical power increases but this also increases the fluctuations in power on the receiver plane. To tackle this trade-off, we present a novel and simple optimization process to determine the optimal value of transmitter semi-angle which provides high received power as well as low power variation across the room. We present different spatial configurations of multiple transmitters by varying the number of LED panels and their positions on the transmitter plane. Based on the proposed optimization function, we select the best configuration which is a novel approach in the field of VLC.