Article
A novel and adaptive angle diversity-based receiver for 6g underground mining vlc systems
Autor
Palacios Játiva, Pablo
Sánchez Soto, Iván
Soto, Ismael
Azurdia-Meza, Cesar A.
Zabala-Blanco, David
Ijaz, Muhammad
Dehghan Firoozabadi, Ali
Plets, David
Institución
Resumen
Visible light communication (VLC) is considered an enabling technology for future 6G
wireless systems. Among the many applications in which VLC systems are used, one of them is harsh
environments such as Underground Mining (UM) tunnels. However, these environments are subject
to degrading environmental and intrinsic challenges for optical links. Therefore, current research
should focus on solutions to mitigate these problems and improve the performance of Underground
Mining Visible Light Communication (UM-VLC) systems. In this context, this article presents a
novel solution that involves an improvement to the Angle Diversity Receivers (ADRs) based on
the adaptive orientation of the Photo-Diodes (PDs) in terms of the Received Signal Strength Ratio
(RSSR) scheme. Specifically, this methodology is implemented in a hemidodecahedral ADR and
evaluated in a simulated UM-VLC scenario. The performance of the proposed design is evaluated
using metrics such as received power, user data rate, and bit error rate (BER). Furthermore, our
approach is compared with state-of-the-art ADRs implemented with fixed PDs and with the Time of
Arrival (ToA) reception method. An improvement of at least 60% in terms of the analyzed metrics
compared to state-of-the-art solutions is obtained. Therefore, the numerical results demonstrate
that the hemidodecahedral ADR, with adaptive orientation PDs, enhances the received optical
signal. Furthermore, the proposed scheme improves the performance of the UM-VLC system due
to its optimum adaptive angular positioning, which is completed according to the strongest optical
received signal power. By improving the performance of the UM-VLC system, this novel method
contributes to further consideration of VLC systems as potential and enabling technologies for future
6G deployments.