CAREER: Towards Practical Mobile Visible Light Communication

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。可见光通信（VLC）是一种利用光（光）能进行通信的新兴技术。VLC在研究和开发方面越来越受欢迎，然而，要成为一种独立的移动技术，仍有很大的差距需要弥补。这些差距特别是在提高通信数据速率和范围，使技术适用于移动条件，以及调节低能量电池供电的技术方面。今天，VLC的开发工作在很大程度上局限于全球范围内的一组有限的研究实验室，因此使该技术不易获得和为公众所知。这也使得没有基础设施和知识基础的学术部门的学生和教师在VLC中教学和/或研究处于极大的劣势。本项目以实现VLC作为一种实用的无线商业移动技术为总体愿景，通过一套统一的综合研究、教育和推广活动来执行一项计划，以实现这一目标。本项目研究和设计机器学习模型以提高吞吐量，设计在移动性下维持VLC链路的新技术，设计VLC传输和接收的能量感知策略，并通过在受控和现实条件下的原型实现实验验证解决方案。与此同时，该项目通过为本科生（REU）开发研究经验，并设计一套新颖的VLC动手学习工具包，向公众免费开放，开展与研究工作相结合的教育推广活动。该项目的五年研究和教育计划侧重于解决在现实世界应用的实际限制下实现可靠和健壮的VLC的基本障碍。VLC性能的目标是中远距离、每秒兆位吞吐量和静态和移动条件下的电池运行。为了实现这些目标，本项目采用实验和数据驱动的方法，通过一系列综合研究和教育活动实现五个关键目标，这是：利用新颖的传输和接收技术实现高吞吐量和远距离；2.） 利用新型硬件和传感器融合构建移动弹性3)。使用新颖的信号设计和低能耗通信协议优化能源使用；4)。原型实现与实验评价和5)。加强VLC的教育和推广。VLC学习工具包为VLC研究界和公众创造了一个新的资源。REU的努力对亚特兰大大学的学生和佐治亚州立大学的大量非洲裔和西班牙裔学生产生了直接影响。总的来说，这个项目激励社区在现实世界的条件下研究和操作VLC。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Visible Light Communication (VLC) is an emerging technology that uses light (optical) energy to communicate. VLC is increasing in popularity for research and development, however, still has significant gaps to cover to become a standalone mobile technology. These gaps are particularly in improving communication data rates and range, making the technology viable for mobile conditions, and conditioning the technology for low-energy battery sourced operation. Today, the development efforts in VLC have largely been confined within a limited set of research labs around the globe, thus making the technology less accessible and known to the public. This also puts students and faculty from academic departments which do not have the infrastructure and knowledge--base to teach and/or research in VLC at a great disadvantage. With an overarching vision to realize VLC as a practical wireless commercial mobile technology, this project executes a plan to achieve this goal through a unified set of integrated research, education, and outreach activities. This project studies and designs machine learning models to improve throughput, design novel techniques for maintaining VLC links under mobility, designs energy-aware strategies for VLC transmission and reception, and experimentally validates the solutions through prototype implementations under controlled and real-world conditions. In parallel, this project performs educational outreach that is well-integrated with the research efforts, by developing research experiences for undergraduates (REU) and designing a novel VLC hands-on learning kit to be made freely accessible to the public.This project’s five-year research and education plan focuses on addressing the fundamental impediments for realizing reliable and robust VLC under practical constraints in real world applications. The target goals for VLC performance are medium-long ranges, Mega-Giga bits-per-second throughput and battery operation under static and mobile conditions. To achieve these goals, this project uses an experimentation and data driven approach realized through a set of integrated research and educational activities along five key objectives, which are: 1.) Achieving High Throughput and Long Range using novel transmission and reception techniques; 2.) Building Mobility Resilience using novel hardware and sensor-fusion; 3.) Optimizing Energy Usage using novel signal designs and low-energy communication protocols; 4.) Prototype Implementation and Experimental Evaluation; and 5.) Enhance VLC Education and Outreach. The VLC learning kit creates a new resource for the VLC research community and the public. The REU efforts create a direct impact on URM students in Atlanta and Georgia State University’s large population of African-American and Hispanic students. Overall, this project motivates the community to study and operate VLC in real-world conditions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.