Integration of Photodiode as a Data Receiver in Visible Light Communication Circuit

Abstract

The exponential increase of mobile data traffic in the last two decades has identified the limitations and deficiency of RF-only mobile communications. Visible light communication VLC research has shown that it is capable of achieving very high data rates (nearly 100 Mbps in IEEE 802.15.7 standard and up to multiple Gbps) however lacking practical implementation. Several modulation techniques have been proposed in theory to improve the data rate and maximum range of VLC system. In practice, the intensity modulation tends to be susceptible to ambient noise while pulse width modulation flickers the LED at a human eye disturbing frequency. Based on the limitations of the past attempts to practically implement a noiseless transmission at a high data rate, this work focused on designing, implementing and integration of photodiode as a data receiver for a real time VLC system capable of noiseless data transmission using quasi pulse with modulation. The design adopted Beagle-Bone-Black (BBB) as development platform while prototype modeling methodology was adopted for VLC implementation and the circuit was tested with PROTUES 8 Professional and data sent reliably and accurately over a short distance at a fair speed which ensures that the initial goals for the functionality of this new system which includes being able to send audio, text or pictures over a distance of approximately 10 meter at a data rate of at least 10 Mbps was achieved using Photodiode as Data Receiver.