LEDs configuration method for supporting handover in visible light communication

Visible light communication (VLC) using white-light emitting diode (LED) is gaining increasing attention and considered as an alternative to overcome drawbacks of radio frequency (RF) communication technology. In order to deal with mobility in indoor VLC systems, sufficient overlap areas of adjacent LEDs are required for successful handover. In this paper, we propose a configuration method of LEDs for supporting handover in VLC systems by placing the LEDs in the way so that the overlap areas of adjacent LEDs to be large enough for successful handover while maximizing illumination and communication performance. To analyze communication performance, received power and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) are taken into account. It is assumed that each LED is modulated at an identical frequency in order to mitigate the affect of intersymbol interference (ISI) then remove the trade-off between SNR and received power. Simulation results show that by applying the configuration method, we can design an LED layout setting that supports successful handover and gives high communication performance corresponding to each room dimension and user condition.