IEEE 802.11BB Reference Channel Models For Light Communications

Increasing industrial attention to visible light communications (VLC) technology led the IEEE 802.11 to establish the task group 802.11bb “Light Communications” (LC) for the development of a VLC standard. As a part of the standard development process, the development of realistic channel models according to possible use cases is of critical importance for physical layer system design. This article presents the reference channel models for the mandatory usage models adopted by IEEE 802.11bb for the evaluation of system proposals. The use cases include industrial, medical, enterprise, and residential scenarios. Channel impulse responses and corresponding frequency responses are obtained for each use case using a ray tracing approach based on realistic specifications for transmitters and receivers, and optical characterization of the environment.