We discuss herein whether an optical wireless communication (OWC) system can be a candidate for post 5G or 6G cellular communication. Almost once per decade, cellular mobile communication is transformed by a significant evolution, with each generation developing a distinctive concept or technology. Interestingly, similar trends have occurred in OWC systems based on visible light and light fidelity (Li-Fi). Unfortunately, OWC is currently relegated to a limited role in any 5G scenario, but the debate whether this is unavoidable has yet to be settled. Whether OWC is adopted post 5G or 6G is not the vital issue; rather, the aim should be that OWC coexists with 5G and 6G communication technologies. In working toward this goal, research and development in OWC will continue to extend its benefits and standardize its systems so that it can be widely deployed in the market. For example, given that a standard already exists for a visible-light beacon identifier and Li-Fi, a service using this standard should be developed to satisfy user demand. Toward this end, we propose herein a method for visible-light beacon identification that involves using a rolling shutter to receive visible-light communications with a smartphone camera. In addition, we introduce a rotary LED transmitter for image-sensor communication.

Visible light communication (VLC) and visible light ranging are applicable techniques for intelligent transportation systems (ITS). They use every unique light-emitting diode (LED) on roads for data transmission and range estimation. The simultaneous VLC and ranging can be applied to improve the performance of both. It is necessary to achieve rapid data rate and high-accuracy ranging when transmitting VLC data and estimating the range simultaneously. We use the signal modulation method of pulse-width modulation (PWM) to increase the data rate. However, when using PWM for VLC data transmission, images of the LED transmitters are captured at different luminance levels and are easily saturated, and LED saturation leads to inaccurate range estimation. In this paper, we establish a novel simultaneous visible light communication and ranging system for ITS using PWM. Here, we analyze the LED saturation problems and apply bicubic interpolation to solve the LED saturation problem and thus, improve the communication and ranging performance. Simultaneous communication and ranging are enabled using a stereo camera. Communication is realized using maximal-ratio combining (MRC) while ranging is achieved using phase-only correlation (POC) and sinc function approximation. Furthermore, we measured the performance of our proposed system using a field trial experiment. The results show that error-free performance can be achieved up to a communication distance of 55 m and the range estimation errors are below 0.5m within 60m.

Image sensor communication (ISC), derived from visible light communication (VLC) is an attractive solution for outdoor mobile environments, particularly for intelligent transport systems (ITS). In ITS-ISC, tracking a transmitter in the image plane is critical issue since vehicle vibrations make it difficult to selsct the correct pixels for data reception. Our goal in this study is to develop a precise tracking method. To accomplish this, vehicle vibration modeling and its parameters estimation, i.e., represetative frequencies and their amplitudes for inherent vehicle vibration, and the variance of the Gaussian random process represnting road surface irregularity, are required. In this paper, we measured actual vehicle vibration in a driving situation and determined parameters based on the frequency characteristics. Then, we demonstrate that vehicle vibration that induces transmitter displacement in an image plane can be modeled by only Gaussian random processes that represent road surface irregularity when a high frame rate (e.g., 1000fps) image sensor is used as an ISC receiver. The simplified vehicle vibration model and its parameters are evaluated by numerical analysis and experimental measurement and obtained result shows that the proposed model can reproduce the characteristics of the transmitter displacement sufficiently.