Multi-User Visible Light Communications: State-of-the-Art and Future Directions

TL;DR

This paper reviews the current state and future prospects of multi-user visible light communication systems, highlighting recent advances and identifying key research directions for scalable indoor wireless networks.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive overview of multi-user VLC, including recent developments in precoding, access, resource management, and mobility, and suggests future research directions.

Findings

Recent advances in multi-user precoding and multiple access techniques.

Development of resource allocation strategies for multi-user VLC.

Identification of future research challenges and opportunities.

Abstract

Visible light communication (VLC) builds upon the dual use of existing lighting infrastructure for wireless data transmission. VLC has recently gained interest as cost-effective, secure, and energy-efficient wireless access technology particularly for indoor user-dense environments. While initial studies in this area are mainly limited to single-user point-to-point links, more recent efforts have focused on multi-user VLC systems in an effort to transform VLC into a scalable and fully networked wireless technology. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive overview of multi-user VLC systems discussing the recent advances on multi-user precoding, multiple access, resource allocation, and mobility management. We further provide possible directions of future research in this emerging topic.