Efficient Coding and Decoding Techniques for Hybrid Radio Frequency and Visible Light Communication Links

对高数据速率、可靠的无线通信的需求持续快速增长。预计在不久的将来，随着智能手机、健康和健身可穿戴设备等物联网设备的使用，联网设备的数量将大幅增加(5G将达到数百亿美元)。随着射频(RF)频谱变得非常拥挤，诸如可见光通信(VLC)等替代和补充技术最近变得非常有吸引力。使用VLC的优势在于其固有的安全性、无干扰，因为VLC不会穿透墙壁，并且具有巨大的空闲带宽。然而，VLC也有其缺点，如室内覆盖有限和移动性有限，必须与RF链路混合使用。尽管最近人们对VLC很感兴趣，并推出了一些商业产品，如LiFi，但仍有许多悬而未决的问题需要解决，以便通过实际方案充分利用巨大的可用带宽。例如，开发有效的编码和调制方案及其相关的实用解码算法。在拟议的计划中，我们将考虑适用于5G系统和物联网的混合RF/VLC链路的高效收发技术。对于5G系统，我们将考虑跨WiFi、VLC和蜂窝网络的负载均衡。在研究了这些链接中的自由度之后，我们将研究使用满足调制光强度模型的修改的格码来实现所有可用的自由度。在接收端，我们还将研究格子解码技术在非相干强度检测中的潜在修改和增强。所研究的方案有望为现有的方案提供更好的替代方案，如开关键控或脉冲位置调制，当用于现实的室内环境时。我们还将考虑短距离通信的短码设计，这些设计可以有一些有趣的应用，例如健康和健身可穿戴传感器之间的数据传输，以及智能手机和智能家居枢纽之间的数据传输。该计划的长期目标是为设计和测试可以在异类网络中工作的实用通信协议做出根本性贡献，这些协议可以有广泛的新兴应用，包括5G系统、物联网和电子健康。该计划产生的知识产权，以及将接受5G系统和异类通信协议培训的大量高素质人员，将极大地造福于加拿大这些快速增长的行业。对于5G系统来说尤其如此：5G基础设施的推出预计将与学生从该项目毕业的时间重合，使他们具有很强的就业能力，并为加拿大的劳动力提供优势。

The demand for high data rate, reliable wireless communications continues to grow rapidly. The number of connected devices is expected to explode in the near future as the use of of smartphones, the Internet of Things' devices such as health and fitness wearables will vastly increase (10s of billions for 5G). As the radio frequency (RF) spectrum is becoming very crowded, alternative and complementary technologies, such as visible light communications (VLC) have recently become very appealing. The advantages of using VLC are its inherent safety, the lack of interference, because VLC does not penetrate walls, and the huge free bandwidth. However, VLC has its drawbacks such as limited indoor coverage and limited mobility, and has to be used in a hybrid manner with RF links. Despite the recent interest in VLC and the availability of some commercial products such as LiFi, there remain many open problems to be addressed in order to fully exploit the huge available bandwidth with practical schemes. For example, the development of efficient coding and modulation schemes and their associated practical decoding algorithms. In the proposed program, we will consider efficient transceiver techniques for hybrid RF/VLC links with applications to 5G systems and the Internet of Things. For 5G systems, we will consider load balancing across WiFi, VLC, and cellular networks. After studying the degrees of freedom in such links, we will investigate the use of modified lattice codes that satisfy the modulated light intensity model in order to achieve all the degrees of freedom available. At the receiver side, we will also investigate the potential modification and enhancement of lattice decoding techniques for the non-coherent intensity detection. The studied schemes are expected to offer better alternatives to existing ones such as on-off keying or pulse position modulations when used in realistic indoor environments. We will also consider short code design for short-range communication that can have some interesting applications such as the data transfer between health and fitness wearable sensors, and smartphones and smart homes hubs. The long term objectives of this program are to make fundamental contributions to the design and test of practical communications protocols that can work in heterogenous networks, which can have a wide range of emerging applications including 5G systems, the Internet of Things and eHealth. The intellectual property resulting from this program, as well as the large number of highly qualified personnel who will be trained in 5G systems and heterogenous communications protocols, will greatly benefit these rapidly growing sectors in Canada. This is especially true for 5G systems: the 5G infrastructure rollout is expected to coincide with the time at which students will be graduating from this program, making them highly employable, and providing an advantage to Canada's workforce.