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）是一种使用光（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的技术，仍然有很大的差距需要弥补。这些差距特别是在改进通信数据速率和范围、使该技术对于移动的条件可行以及调节该技术用于低能量电池源操作方面。今天，VLC的开发工作在很大程度上局限于地球仪周围的一组有限的研究实验室，从而使该技术不太容易获得和为公众所知。这也使学生和教师从学术部门没有基础设施和知识基础，教和/或研究VLC处于很大的劣势。 随着实现VLC作为一个实用的无线商业移动的技术的总体愿景，该项目执行一个计划，通过一套统一的综合研究，教育和推广活动，以实现这一目标。该项目研究和设计机器学习模型以提高吞吐量，设计用于在移动性下维护VLC链路的新技术，设计用于VLC传输和接收的能量感知策略，并在受控和真实条件下通过原型实现实验验证解决方案。与此同时，本项目通过为本科生开发研究经验（REU）和设计一个新颖的VLC实践学习套件，向公众免费提供，开展与研究工作紧密结合的教育推广。本项目的五年研究和教育计划侧重于解决在真实的世界应用中，在实际限制下实现可靠和强大的VLC的基本障碍。VLC性能的目标是在静态和移动的条件下的中长距离、兆千兆位每秒吞吐量和电池操作。为了实现这些目标，该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了沿着五个关键目标，它们是：1。使用新颖的发射和接收技术实现高吞吐量和长距离; 2.）使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.）原型实施和实验评估;以及5.）加强VLC教育和推广。VLC学习工具包为VLC研究社区和公众创造了新的资源。REU的努力对亚特兰大和格鲁吉亚州立大学的大量非裔美国人和西班牙裔学生产生了直接影响。总体而言，该项目激励社区在现实世界条件下研究和操作VLC。该奖项反映了NSF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.