A study of the impact of VLC on the quality of lighting and display

The co-existence of data transmission and lighting inside a common light emitting diode (LED) to complement the radio frequency based wireless communication in satisfying the global socio-economic activities is a low-cost/low-energy proposition termed visible light communications (VLC). It radically turns a passive light source into a dynamic service hub that provides opportunities to improve existing services and introduce new ones.
For this nascent VLC idea to gain traction and realise its huge potential however, vital optimisation approach to mutually accommodate data and illumination on the same LED becomes a necessity. This includes studying, understanding and quantifying the inter-relationship between lighting requirements and data transmission as against the current approach that completely disregards this. To this end, this research will be investigating the impacts of VLC on the fundamental properties of energy efficiency, light quality and life expectancy of an LED that is primarily designed for lighting/display. The findings from this work will provide the required approach for optimising VLC and safeguard the LED's reliability, durability and emitted light quality

Both current and future demands for wireless bandwidths cannot be met by the existing radio communication techniques alone. VLC can complement evolutions in radio wireless communications in addressing this impending spectrum crunch. VLC also has the potential to expand wireless communication coverage to areas such as hospitals, factories, secure environments and others where user preference, regulation, or the propagation environment makes RF wireless undesirable. It equally allows for new services to be developed and more efficient operation of facilities such as factories. By leveraging on the existing lighting and display infrastructure for data transmission, VLC adds data capacity at little additional cost thereby increasing the economic efficiency of the network infrastructure.