Multiple Access for Visible Light Communications: Research Challenges and Future Trends

TL;DR

This paper reviews multiple access techniques for visible light communication (VLC), discussing their technical challenges and future research directions to support massive connectivity and spectrum efficiency in next-generation wireless networks.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of various multiple access methods for VLC, including frequency, optical code division, space division, and non-orthogonal techniques, highlighting research challenges and future trends.

Findings

Analysis of frequency domain multiple access techniques

Discussion on optical code division multiple access in VLC

Evaluation of non-orthogonal multiple access potential

Abstract

The ever-increasing demand of mobile Internet and multimedia services poses unique and significant challenges for current and future generation wireless networks. These challenges are mainly relating to the support of massive ubiquitous connectivity, low latency and highly efficient utilization of spectrum resources. Therefore, it is vital to consider them extensively prior to design and deployment of future wireless networks. To this end, the present article provides a comprehensive overview of a particularly promising and effective wireless technology, namely, visible light communication (VLC). In this context, we initially provide a thorough overview of frequency domain multiple access techniques for single and multi-carrier systems, which is then followed by an in depth discussion on the technical considerations of optical code division multiple access techniques and their adoption in indoor VLC applications. Furthermore, we address space division multiple access and, finally, we revisit and analyze the distinct characteristics of a new technology, namely, non-orthogonal multiple access, which has been proposed recently as a particularly effective solution.