Mixed RF-VLC Relaying System with Radio-Access Diversity

TL;DR

This paper analyzes a hybrid RF-VLC relaying system using millimeter wave RF links for outdoor backhaul and indoor VLC, deriving new outage and error rate formulas validated by simulations.

Contribution

It introduces novel closed-form expressions for outage probability and bit error rate in a mixed RF-VLC relaying system, enhancing understanding of system performance.

Findings

System performance depends on RF and VLC channel parameters

Derived formulas accurately predict outage and error rates

Simulations confirm analytical results

Abstract

We present a statistical analysis of a mixed radio-frequency (RF)-visible light communications (VLC) relaying system, where outdoor millimeter wave based RF links are utilized to provide backhaul connectivity for indoor VLC broadcasting. The multiple RF links are assumed to communicate with the VLC access point through decode-and-forward relay. Novel closed-form outage probability and average bit error rate expressions are derived and utilized to obtain numerical results. Monte Carlo simulations validate presented numerical results, which are further used to examine the effects of system and channel parameters on system performance.