Novel VLC Systems for 6G applications

Abstract

AbstractThe increasing demands for data traffic have driven the implementation of ad-vanced technologies. In this context, visible light communication (VLC) has beenconsidered a promising technology for future mobile networks. Therefore, this workproposes and implements novel architectures usingVLCsystems as part of complexhybrid systems. These systems focus on last-mile applications for fifth generation ofmobile networks (5G) and sixth generation of mobile networks (6G) networks. Tech-nologies such as radio-over-fiber (RoF), millimeter-waves (mm-waves), free space op-tics (FSO), and fiber wireless (FiWi) are implemented along withVLCsystems inthe proposed architectures. Real digital signals with 5G new radio (5G NR) standardand digital vector signals are transmitted. In this document, three main contributionsare reported. The first one was reported in theApplied Opticsjournal, where a VLC-LED-based system was integrated with aRoFlink; moreover, the wavelength divisionmultiplexing (WDM) technique was used to obtain higher throughput and a spot ofwhite light. Another important contribution in this Paper was the use of a dichroiccube filter (DCF) to demux the light at the VLC receiver, in addition to simplifying theoptical size setup and avoiding the use of discrete optical filters. The second contri-bution presents a novel system to transmit full-duplex signals, demonstrating a hybridarchitecture system based onVLCand analog radio-over-fiber (A-RoF) technologies.The use ofDCFs in theVLCoptical setup is the key to enable full-duplex mode ontheVLClink, which is one of the main contributions. The system performance wasevaluated by metrics of5G NRstandard. This work was reported in the journalOpticsCommunications. Finally, the third contribution, which was recently submitted to ascientific journal, presents a VLC system using a commercial LED that emits whitecool light and integrates this into a hybrid telecom system. The latter makes use oftechnologies such asFSO,RoF,mm-waves, andFiWi.Keywords:5G, 6G, FiWi, FSO, millimeter-waves, RoF, and VLC.