可见光通信

人类最古老的通信手段是什么？早在几千年前，人类就知道用烽火来传递战争信息，后来在航海中又学会通过灯光的长短闪烁来组成不同的字母和单词。如今，可见光通信 Visible light communications (VLC)又被旧话重提，利用LED光源可以快速闪烁的特点，LED灯可以提供高传输速率的可见光信号链路。

相关标准方面，目前日本的可见光通信联盟（Visible Light Communications Consortium，由Casio、NEC、松下、三星、夏普、东芝和运营商NTT Docomo组成）正在促进IEEE 802.15WPAN工作组制定802.15.7标准，据相关人士透漏，802.15.7标准草案有望在2011年形成。VLC目前需要解决编解码方式、速率、适用范围、调光影响等许多问题。

http://www.ieee802.org/15/pub/TG7.html


VLC并不是要替代Wifi、IR、BT、WiMAX等标准，也无法进行替代，不过在一些应用领域能发挥独特的作用。比如在医院或飞机上，RF信号会对重要的通信或精密设备产生干扰，这是就可以发挥VLC的作用。在汽车照灯上也有很好的应用概念，比如波士顿大学提出的刹车警告系统。








当然，LED的性能也是需要考虑的，现在最新的研发成果是纳米线LED。

下面转载一些新闻报道：

Samsung is experimenting with including VLC with its LED-based backlit LCD flat-panel displays so that viewers can download everything from product information to Web site addresses. "We believe that LCD backlight communications is one of best applications for VLC, because LCD backlights are changing to LEDs anyway," said Scott Birnbaum, vice president of Samsung's LCD business.

 

Smart Lighting ERC participant Boston University is focusing on the use of VLC for traditional data communications in unconventional places, such as on aircraft. VLC offers the ability to harness separate parallel data connections, either from different lines of sight or by virtue of multiplexing different frequencies of visible light over the same line of sight. Thus, everyone watching the same movie could share a common broadcast connection, or separate data streams could be fed to the devices of individuals watching different movies.

 

On the factory floor, the same capability could allow mobile robots to use VLC to navigate warehouses by checking their location using overhead lights and by communicating directly with each other to avoid collisions. Likewise, automobiles could keep tabs on their location by reading the coordinates being broadcast by traffic lights. Vehicle-to-vehicle VLC could help avoid collisions and prevent traffic jams.

 

BU professor Thomas Little, a lead researcher and associate director of the smart-lighting center, is experimenting with different modulation schemes, including encoders that use standard binary codes, non-return-to-zero encoders, pulse-code modulation and pulse-density modulation, all of which he claims can be made to work without flickering light, so long as data rates are above 900 kHz. Little's group is also investigating how to transmit and receive signals reliably without having a direct line of sight, by using reflected signals but without incurring intermodulation interference.

"We want to make the installation of a network as easy as screwing in a light bulb," said Little, whose lab to date has completed more than 40 prototypes, which are being evaluated by industrial partners.

 

The Smart Lighting lab at BU has several demonstrations already set up that show how light fixtures might be made to accommodate both the illumination function and the data communications function. Hardwired Ethernet signals could be routed from fixture to fixture, for instance, with LEDs modulating the data signals from the Ethernet installation.

 

"The problem that we are trying to address is how to provide high data rates at a very low cost so that it [VLC] can become a part of the lighting infrastructure," said Little.

 

德国西门子公司15日发表公报说,该公司和海因里希·赫茨研究所的科学家通过特殊方式使发光二极管(LED)高频闪烁,附近的光电探测器将接收到这种光信号转换为电脉冲,其信息传输速度达到每秒500兆。

此前可见光通信最高传输速度为每秒200兆,也是由西门子和海因里希·赫茨研究所共同创造的。

与无线局域网相比,可见光通信技术可利用荧光灯或发光二极管等室内照明设备发射信号。利用具备接收和送发信息功能的电脑以及移动信息终端,用户可以在室内灯光照射到的地方,下载和上传数据。这种技术安全性高,只要用窗帘遮住光线,信息就不会外泄至室外,减少了数据被窃的可能性。