Illumination and Transmit Speed Investigation of Lighting Infrastructure with Diffuser Plates for Practical Indoor Visible Light Communication Systems based on Monte Carlo Simulation

In recent years, visible light communication (VLC) system has gained tremendous attention due to its advantages over radio frequency communications, such as high transmit speed of up to gigabit per second, the ability to ensure data security, and ease of system integration. The VLC system can be used for both indoor lighting and communication, so there is a great potential to provide a thorough analysis for both the quality of illumination and the indoor transmit speed. In this manuscript, an indoor VLC system with diffuser plate in the line-of-sight channel model is constructed, aiming to systematically investigate the influence of the most widely adopted diffuser plates on the quality of illumination and on the upper transmit speed limit. From the illumination perspective, diffuser plates with microhemispheres and v-shaped microstructures are investigated. Based on Monte Carlo simulation, the average illuminance and illuminance uniformity are investigated with light sources of different light intensity distribution curves (LIDCs) and two types of microstructures. It is concluded that the scattering effect of the diffuser plate with microhemispheres are better than v-shaped microstructures. Moreover, the statistical distribution of the transmit speed are analyzed with light sources of different LIDCs while varying the signal loading position and the position of the receiver. It is concluded that the changes of the signal loading position and the position of the receiver greatly affect the transmit speed. The signal loaded at center has the shortest time and the highest transmit speed can be obtained up to 6.91 Mb/s despite various types of LIDCs. The analysis of the above results will serve as an important reference for the future implementation of high-speed VLC optical infrastructure indoors.