| Visible light communication (VLC) is an emerging wireless technology that offers a promising set of possibilities for applications that need more capacity than legacy radio frequency (RF) can offer. Free-space-optical (FSO) communication is VLC's general form spanning infrared bands, and it has an upper hand on traditional RF systems due to license-free spectrum, inherent security and containment of beams, energy efficient communications, and high transmission rates. In this work, we consider a hybrid RF/FSO mechanism to transmit multiple data streams over multi-element VLC modules. We evaluate a novel model of multi-element hemispherical design that can provide good lighting and communication coverage across a room. Simulation results are presented to evaluate the link quality performance of the hemispherical design with hundreds of LED transmitters, organized in different configurations. |
