Ultra-parallel visible light communications (UP-VLC)

我们正处于一场全球照明革命的边缘，基于高效且坚固的发光二极管（LED）的“固态照明”（SSL）逐渐取代了传统的白炽灯甚至荧光灯，并进入了新的领域，包括标牌、照明、信号、消费电子、建筑基础设施、显示器、服装、航空电子、汽车、潜艇应用、医疗假肢等。到目前为止，这项技术主要被视为一种提高能源和频谱效率的方法，但相对而言，很少有人研究或欣赏它对未来通信的深远影响。我们设想一种全新形式的高带宽通信基础设施的巨大前景，以补充、加强并在某些情况下取代现有系统。这种基于led的技术将利用可见光谱，目前大部分未用于通信，比整个微波频谱宽10000多。这有望帮助解决射频无线通信中“迫在眉睫的频谱危机”，并允许在射频不适用（例如水下应用）或不受欢迎（例如飞机，船舶，医院手术）的情况下部署，但其影响甚至比这更根本。在我们看来，关键在于照明、显示、通信和传感功能可以结合起来，从而产生“通过照明获取数据”和“通过显示获取数据”的新概念。想象一下，例如，一个“智能房间”，其中“通用照明器”提供高带宽通信，传感器监控环境和其中的人，提供定位信息和显示功能，并监控光的质量。想象一下将显示功能和视频与多个高带宽通信通道相结合的新型个人通信系统。这可能是通过移动个人通信器（移动电话或个人数字助理的发展），甚至是可穿戴和机械柔性显示器。我们雄心勃勃的计划旨在以富有想象力和远见的方式探索这种变革性的传播观点。该愿景建立在氮化镓（GaN）光电子技术将光通信与照明功能相结合的独特能力之上，特别是该技术实现新形式空间复用的能力，其中高密度led阵列中的单个元素提供独立的通信通道，但可以组合为显示器。我们设想超高数据密度-可能是Tb/s/mm2 -紧凑和通用形式的led阵列，并将在此基础上开发基于机械刚性和机械柔性基板的新型收发器技术。我们将探讨这种方法对多通道波导和自由空间光通信的影响，建立对这种新形式的通信具有长期意义的指导方针和基本性能评估。

We are on the verge of a global revolution in lighting, as efficient and robust light emitting diode (LED) based 'solid state lighting' (SSL) progressively replaces traditional incandescent and even fluorescent lamps and finds its way into new areas including signage, illumination, signalling, consumer electronics, building infrastructure, displays, clothing, avionics, automotive, sub-marine applications, medical prosthetics and so on. This technology has tended to be viewed, so far, primarily as a way to improve energy- and spectral-efficiency, but what has been relatively little studied or appreciated is its profound implications for the future of communications. We envisage the tremendous prospect of an entirely new form of high bandwidth communications infrastructure to complement, enhance and in some cases supercede existing systems. This LED-based technology will utilise the visible spectrum, largely unused for communications at present and more than 10,000 broader than the entire microwave spectrum. This promises to help address the 'looming spectral crisis' in RF wireless communications and to permit deployment in situations where RF is either not applicable (e.g. in underwater applications) or undesirable (e.g. aircraft, ships, hospital surgeries), but the implications are more fundamental even than that. The key point, in our view, is that lighting, display, communications and sensing functions can be combined, leading to new concepts of 'data through illumination' and 'data through displays'. Imagine, for example, a 'smart room', where 'universal illuminators' provide high-bandwidth communications, sensors monitoring the environment and people within it, provide positioning information and display functions, and monitor the quality of the light. Imagine novel forms of personal communications system that combine display functions and video with multiple, high-bandwidth communications channels. These could be through mobile personal communicators (developments of mobile phones or personal digital assistants) or even wearable and mechanically flexible displays. Our ambitious programme seeks to explore this transformative view of communications in an imaginative and foresighted way. The vision is built on the unique capabilities of gallium nitride (GaN) optoelectronics to combine optical communications with lighting functions, and especially on the capability of the technology to implement new forms of spatial multiplexing, where individual elements in high-density arrays of LEDs provide independent communications channels, but can combine as displays. We envisage ultra-high data density - potentially Tb/s/mm2 - arrays of LEDs in compact and versatile forms, and will develop novel transceiver technology on this basis on both mechancially rigid and mechanically flexible substrates. We will explore the implications of this approach for multi-channel waveguide and free-space optical communications, establishing guidelines and fundamental assessments of performance which will be of long-term significance to this new form of communications.