Can Visible Light Communications Provide Gb/s Service?

Visible light communications (VLC) that use the infrastructure of the indoor illumination system have been envisioned as a compact, safe, and green alternative to WiFi for the downlink of an indoor wireless mobile communication system. Although the optical spectrum is typically well-suited to high throughput applications, combining communications with indoor lighting in a commercially viable system imposes severe limitations both in bandwidth and received power. Clever techniques are needed to achieve Gb/s transmission, and to do it in a cost effective manner so as to successfully compete with other high-capacity alternatives for indoor access, such as millimeter-wave radio-frequency (RF). This article presents modulation schemes that have the potential to overcome the many challenges faced by VLC in providing multi Gb/s indoor wireless connectivity.