Visible light communication (VLC) is emerging as a viable alternative wireless transmission technology that could potentially alleviate the spectrum scarcity problem. VLC uses ordinary light sources such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) as the communication medium, and superposes a high frequency on/off operation on top of light sources for data transmissions. Compared to radio communications, the advantages of VLC include several orders broader in bandwidth, very little regulatory restrictions, ubiquitous light sources, and higher level of security for transmissions. One of the main challenges in the design of VLC at the physical layer is the issue of interference caused by simultaneous transmissions of multiple sources due to diffusion of lights emitted from regular light sources. While interference management for the Gaussian model (valid for the strong background light noise regime) is relatively well understood, it is mostly unexplored for the Poisson model (valid for the low background light noise regime).
This project will design novel interference management techniques for VLC in the Poisson regime, analyze the corresponding transmission rates/throughputs for VLC, and develop information theoretic methodologies to characterize the fundamental communication limits on these transmission rates. The proposed research is expected to make substantial contributions to both applications and theory. On the application side, this project is anticipated to substantially advance our understanding of interference management for VLC, and provide important guidelines for designing high throughput and resource efficient VLC networks. On the theoretical level, the project will develop new stochastic calculus and information theoretic tools to advance our understanding of Poisson channels. The PIs will also use this project as a great platform to attract and train students from diverse backgrounds.
