Visible Light Communication for Vehicular Applications: A Novel Architecture with Proof-of-Concept Prototype

When there is an increasing interest in visible light communication (VLC), outdoor vehicle VLC has emerged as a promising candidate technology for future intelligent transportation systems. However, in VLC based vehicular applications, several challenges impede successful commercial application of VLC based products. This article first provides a thorough overview of the existing challenges. To overcome these challenges, we propose a novel architecture with tracking and environment sensing ability for practical vehicular applications. Moreover, a proof-of concept prototype is implemented to validate the feasibility of the proposed system. Experimental and simulation results show that the proposed VLC system can provide reliable communications with a bit-error rate less than 10-4 for vehicles under strong interference lights. Finally, based on the evaluations, we propose some key design issues for future studies in this research area.