Visible light communication (VLC) offers an unregulated and free light spectrum and potentially could be a solution for overcoming overcrowded radio spectrum, especially for wireless communication systems, and doing it securely. In the articles cited here, security issues are addressed related to secure bar codes for smart phones, reducing the impact of ambient light (optical “noise”), physical layer security for indoor visible light, and using xenon flashlights for mobile payments. Also sited are works covering a broader range of visible light communications topics. These works appeared in the first half of 2014.

• Bingsheng Zhang; Kui Ren; Guoliang Xing; Xinwen Fu; Cong Wang, "SBVLC: Secure Barcode-Based Visible Light Communication For Smartphones," INFOCOM, 2014 Proceedings IEEE, pp.2661,2669, April 27 2014-May 2 2014. doi: 10.1109/INFOCOM.2014.6848214 As an alternative to NFC technology, 2D barcodes have been increasingly used for security-sensitive applications including payments and personal identification. However, the security of barcode-based communication in mobile applications has not been systematically studied. Due to the visual nature, 2D barcodes are subject to eavesdropping when they are displayed on the screen of a smartphone. On the other hand, the fundamental design principles of 2D barcodes make it difficult to add security features. In this paper, we propose SBVLC - a secure system for barcode-based visible light communication (VLC) between smartphones. We formally analyze the security of SBVLC based on geometric models and propose physical security enhancement mechanisms for barcode communication by manipulating screen view angles and leveraging user-induced motions. We then develop two secure data exchange schemes. These schemes are useful in many security-sensitive mobile applications including private information sharing, secure device pairing, and mobile payment. SBVLC is evaluated through extensive experiments on both Android and iOS smartphones.
  Keywords: Android (operating system); bar codes; electronic data interchange; mobile commerce; near-field communication; radiofrequency identification; smart phones; telecommunication security;2D barcodes; Android smartphones; NFC technology; SBVLC; eavesdropping; geometric model; iOS smartphones; mobile payment; payments identification; personal identification; physical security enhancement mechanism; private information sharing; screen view angle manipulation; secure barcode-based visible light communication; secure data exchange scheme; secure device pairing; security sensitive application; security sensitive mobile application; user induced motion; Cameras; Decoding; Receivers; Security; Smart phones; Solid modeling; Three-dimensional displays}, (ID#:14-2927)
  URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6848214&isnumber=6847911

• Verma, S.; Shandilya, A; Singh, A, "A Model For Reducing The Effect Of Ambient Light Source In VLC System," Advance Computing Conference (IACC), 2014 IEEE International, pp.186,188, 21-22 Feb. 2014. doi: 10.1109/IAdCC.2014.6779317 In recent years, Visible Light Communication has generated worldwide interest in the field of wireless communication because of its low cost and secure data exchange. However VLC suffers from serious drawbacks which degrade the communication performance. One of the major problems faced by any VLC system is the interference caused by ambient light noise, deteriorating the performance of the system. In this paper we propose an AVR based model to mitigate the ambient light noise interference and discuss its effectiveness. Further we have discussed other difficulties of VLC system.
  Keywords: electronic data interchange; interference suppression; light interference; optical communication; optical noise; telecommunication security; AVR based model; VLC system; ambient light noise interference mitigation; ambient light source; secure data exchange; visible light communication; wireless communication; Conferences; Decision support systems; Handheld computers; Ambient noise mitigation; LED transmitter; Visible Light Communication (VLC) (ID#:14-2928)
  URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6779317&isnumber=6779283

• Mostafa, A; Lampe, L., "Physical-layer Security For Indoor Visible Light Communications," Communications (ICC), 2014 IEEE International Conference on, pp.3342,3347, 10-14 June 2014. doi: 10.1109/ICC.2014.6883837 This paper considers secure transmission over the visible light communication (VLC) channel by the means of physical-layer security techniques. In particular, we consider achievable secrecy rates of the multiple-input, single-output (MISO) wiretap VLC channel. The VLC channel is modeled as a deterministic and real-valued Gaussian channel subject to amplitude constraints. We utilize null-steering and artificial noise strategies to achieve positive secrecy rates when the eavesdropper's channel state information (CSI) is perfectly known and entirely unknown to the transmitter, respectively. In both scenarios, the legitimate receiver's CSI is available to the transmitter. We numerically evaluate achievable secrecy rates under typical VLC scenarios and show that simple precoding techniques can significantly improve the confidentiality of VLC links.
  Keywords: Gaussian channels indoor communication; optical communication; precoding; radio receivers; radio transmitters; telecommunication security; CSI; MISO channel; achievable secrecy rates; amplitude constraints; artificial noise; channel state information; deterministic Gaussian channel; indoor visible light communications; legitimate receiver; multiple-input single-output channel; null steering; physical layer security; positive secrecy rates; real-valued Gaussian channel; secure transmission; simple precoding; transmitter; wiretap VLC channel; Light emitting diodes; Optical transmitters; Receivers; Security; Signal to noise ratio; Vectors (ID#:14-2929)
  URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6883837&isnumber=6883277

• Galal, M.M.; El Aziz, AA; Fayed, H.A; Aly, M.H., "Employing Smartphones Xenon Flashlight For Mobile Payment," Multi-Conference on Systems, Signals & Devices (SSD), 2014 11th International, pp.1,5, 11-14 Feb. 2014. doi: 10.1109/SSD.2014.6808780 Due to the huge dependence of the users on their smartphones and the huge technological advances in their design, smartphones have replaced many electronic devices nowadays. For that reason, it is of great interest to use such phones to replace magnetic cards. This paper uses the built-in Xenon flashlight in today's Android smartphones to experimentally transmit the data stored on the user magnetic card to a card reader or automatic teller machine (ATM). We experimentally modulate the embedded Xenon flashlight in a smartphone with the required information of a traditional magnetic card and transmit the light over a secure high speed optical link at 15 bps with no additional hardware at the user end. The paper introduces the design of an implemented small, inexpensive supplementary receiver circuit module, which is easily attached to a contemporary card reader or ATM machine. Furthermore, the paper tests the system performance under the effect of interference from another transmitter as well as compares its speed and security to the regular ATM card and to other competing technologies.
  Keywords: electronic commerce; optical links; smart phones; ATM; Android smartphones; automatic teller machine; contemporary card reader; magnetic cards; mobile payment; secure high speed optical link; smartphones Xenon flashlight; supplementary receiver circuit module; IEC standards; Photodetectors; Pulse width modulation; Receivers; Smart phones; Transmitters; ATM machines; Visible light communication; Xenon flashlight; smart payments; smartphones (ID#:14-2930)
  URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6808780&isnumber=6808745

• Kizilirmak, R.C.; Uysal, M., "Relay-assisted OFDM Transmission For Indoor Visible Light Communication," Communications and Networking (BlackSeaCom), 2014 IEEE International Black Sea Conference on, pp.11,15, 27-30 May 2014. doi: 10.1109/BlackSeaCom.2014.6848995 In this study, we investigate a relay-assisted visible light communication (VLC) system where an intermediate light source cooperates with the main light source. Specifically, we consider two light sources in an office space; one is the information source employed on the ceiling and the other one is a task light mounted on a desk. Our system builds upon DC biased optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DCO-OFDM). The task light performs amplify-and-forward relaying to assist the communication and operates in half-duplex mode. We investigate the error rate performance of the proposed OFDM-based relay-assisted VLC system. Furthermore, we present joint AC and DC optimal power allocation in order to improve the performance. The DC power allocation is controlled by sharing the number of LED chips between the terminals and the AC power allocation decides the fraction of the information signal energy to be consumed at the terminals. Simulation results reveal that the VLC system performance can be improved via relay-assisted transmission and the performance gain as much as 6 dB can be achieved.
  Keywords: OFDM modulation; amplify and forward communication; indoor communication ;light sources; optical communication; optical modulation; relay networks (telecommunication);DC biased optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing; LED chips; VLC system; amplify-and-forward relaying; error rate performance; half-duplex mode; indoor visible light communication; information signal energy; information source; intermediate light source; joint AC-DC optimal power allocation; office space; relay-assisted OFDM transmission; relay-assisted visible light communication system; Bit error rate; Light sources; Lighting; OFDM; Relays; Resource management; Sea surface; DCO-OFDM; Visible light communication; amplify-and-forward; half-duplex; power allocation (ID#:14-2931)
  URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6848995&isnumber=6848989

• Fisne, A; Toker, C., "Investigation of the Channel Structure in Visible Light Communication," Signal Processing and Communications Applications Conference (SIU), 2014 22nd, pp.1646, 1649, 23-25 April 2014. doi: 10.1109/SIU.2014.6830562 Visible Light Communication comes forward particularly in indoor communication as an important alternative to the radio communication systems, nowadays. In Visible Light Communication, information is transferred by means of the light used for lighting rather than radio frequencies. In this paper, structure of the channel used for Visible Light Communication is examined. The effects of geometry between the receiver and transmitter upon communication are analyzed, supported with simulations.
  Keywords: geometry; indoor communication; optical receivers; optical transmitters; channel structure; geometry effects; indoor communication; lighting; visible light communication; Conferences; Light emitting diodes; Lighting; Masers; Mathematical model; Signal to noise ratio (ID#:14-2932)
  URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6830562&isnumber=6830164

• Wang Yuanquan; Chi Nan, "A High-Speed Bi-Directional Visible Light Communication System Based on RGB-LED," Communications, China, vol.11, no.3, pp.40, 44, March 2014. doi: 10.1109/CC.2014.6825257 In this paper, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a bi-directional indoor communication system based on visible light RGB-LED. Spectrally efficient modulation formats (QAM-OFDM), advanced digital signal processing, pre- and post-equalization are adopted to compensate the severe frequency response of indoor channel. In this system, we utilize red-green-blue Light emitting diodes (LEDs), of which each color can be used to carry different signals. For downlink, the low frequencies of each color are used while for uplink, the high frequencies are used. The overall data rate of downlink and uplink are 1.15-Gb/s and 300-Mb/s. The bit error ratios (BERs) for all channels after 0.7 m indoor delivery are below pre-forward-error-correction (pre-FEC) threshold of 3.8×103. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest data rate in bi-directional visible light communication system.
  Keywords: {OFDM modulation; error statistics; forward error correction; indoor communication; light emitting diodes; optical communication; quadrature amplitude modulation; telecommunication channels; BER; QAM-OFDM; advanced digital signal processing ;bi-directional indoor communication system; bi-directional visible light communication system; bit error ratios ;bit rate 1.15 Gbit/s; bit rate 300 Mbit/s; downlink; equalization; error-correction; frequency response; high-speed bi-directional visible light communication system; indoor channel; indoor delivery; modulation formats; preFEC threshold; preforward-error-correction; red-green-blue Light emitting diodes; uplink; visible light RGB-LED; Bidirectional control; Downlink; Image color analysis; Light emitting diodes; Modulation; OFDM; Uplink; bidirectional transmission; light emitting diode; orthogonal frequency division multiplexing; visible light communication (ID#:14-2933)
  URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6825257&isnumber=6825249

• Xu Bao; Xiaorong Zhu; Tiecheng Song; Yanqiu Ou, "Protocol Design and Capacity Analysis in Hybrid Network of Visible Light Communication and OFDMA Systems," Vehicular Technology, IEEE Transactions on, vol.63, no.4, pp.1770, 1778, May 2014. doi: 10.1109/TVT.2013.2286264 Visible light communication (VLC) uses a vast unregulated and free light spectrum. It is considered to be a solution for overcoming the crowded radio spectrum for wireless communication systems. However, duplex communication, user mobility, and handover mechanisms are becoming challenging tasks in a VLC system. This paper proposes a hybrid network model of VLC and orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing access (OFDMA) in which the VLC channel is only used for downlink transmission, whereas OFDMA channels are served for uplinks in any situation or for downlinks only without VLC hotspots coverage. A novel protocol is proposed combined with access, horizontal, and vertical handover mechanisms for mobile terminal (MT) to resolve user mobility among different hotspots and OFDMA system. A new VLC network scheme and its frame format are presented to deal with the multiuser access problems in every hotspot. In addition, a new metric ρ is defined to evaluate the capacity of this hybrid network as the spatial density of interarrival time of MT requests in s-1m-2 under the assumption of the homogenous Poisson point process (HPPP) distribution of MTs. Analytical and simulation results show improvements in capacity performance of the hybrid, when compared to OFDMA system.
  Keywords: Poisson distribution; frequency division multiple access; optical communication; protocols; HPPP distribution; OFDMA channels; OFDMA systems; VLC channel; VLC hotspots coverage; capacity analysis; downlink transmission; duplex communication; free light spectrum; handover mechanisms; homogenous Poisson point process; hybrid network model; interarrival time; mobile terminal; mobility mechanisms; multiuser access problems; orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing access; protocol design; radio spectrum; spatial density; visible light communication; wireless communication systems; Downlink; Handover; Protocols; Radio frequency; Servers; Uplink; Capacity analysis; VLC frame format; Visible light Communication (VLC);capacity analysis; horizontal and vertical handover; hybrid VLC-OFDMA network; hybrid visible light communication (VLC)-orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing access (OFDMA) network (ID#:14-2934)
  URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6637084&isnumber=6812142

• Mondal, R.K.; Saha, N.; Yeong Min Jang, "Performance Enhancement Of MIMO Based Visible Light Communication," Electrical Information and Communication Technology (EICT), 2013 International Conference on, pp.1,5, 13-15 Feb. 2014.doi: 10.1109/EICT.2014.6777901 The camera based visible light communication (VLC) is the merger of VLC with vision technology in order to deploy VLC features in hand-held devices e.g., in Smartphone, employing light emitting diode (LED) transmitter to camera communication. However, the most advantageous features of VLC technology have not been achieved due to the low frame handling rate in camera module. In contrast, the spatially light source separation characteristic in camera module explores the scope to deploy multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) concept for enhancing the overall system capacity and robust signal reception in camera based VLC system. In this paper, the performance of spatial multiplexing in MIMO based VLC system is evaluated.
  Keywords: {MIMO communication; cameras; light emitting diodes; optical communication; LED transmitter; MIMO based visible light communication; Smartphone; VLC; camera based visible light communication; hand held devices; light emitting diode; performance enhancement; robust signal reception; spatial multiplexing; vision technology; Bit error rate; Cameras; MIMO; Multiplexing; Optical transmitters; Receivers; Signal to noise ratio; LED; MIMO; Spatial Multiplexing; Visible light communication; image sensor (ID#:14-2935)
  URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6777901&isnumber=6777807

• Din, I; Hoon Kim, "Energy-Efficient Brightness Control and Data Transmission for Visible Light Communication," Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE, vol. 26, no. 8, pp.781, 784, April 15, 2014. doi: 10.1109/LPT.2014.2306195 This letter considers the efficient utilization of energy in a visible light communication (VLC) system. A joint brightness control and data transmission are presented to reduce the total power consumption while satisfying lighting and communication requirements. An optimization problem is formulated to determine the optimal parameters for the input waveform of light emitting diode (LED) lamps; this problem reduces the total energy consumption of the LED lamps while ensuring the desired brightness and communication link quality. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme increases the energy efficiency of the VLC system.
  Keywords: {LED lamps; brightness; data communication; energy consumption; optical communication equipment; optical links; LED lamps; VLC system; communication link quality; data transmission; energy consumption; energy efficiency; energy-efficient brightness control; input waveform; light emitting diode lamps; optimization problem; power consumption; visible light communication system; Brightness; Data communication; LED lamps; Modulation; Optical receivers; Visible light communication; energy efficiency; subcarrier pulse position modulation; wireless communication (ID#:14-2936)
  URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6740016&isnumber=6776431

• Monteiro, E.; Hranilovic, S., "Design and Implementation of Color-Shift Keying for Visible Light Communications," Lightwave Technology, Journal of, vol.32, no.10, pp.2053, 2060, May 15, 2014. doi: 10.1109/JLT.2014.2314358 Color-shift keying (CSK) is a visible light communication intensity modulation scheme, outlined in IEEE 802.15.7, that transmits data imperceptibly through the variation of the color emitted by red, green, and blue light emitting diodes. An advantage of CSK is that the power envelope of the transmitted signal is fixed; therefore, CSK reduces the potential for human health complications related to fluctuations in light intensity. In this work, a rigorous design framework for high order CSK constellations is presented. A key benefit of the frame work is that it optimizes constellations while accounting for crosstalk between the color communication channels. In addition, and unlike previous approaches, the method is capable of optimizing 3-D constellations. Furthermore, a prototype CSK communication system is presented to validate the performance of the optimized constellations, which provide gains of 1-3 dB over standard 805.15.7 constellations.
  Keywords: IEEE standards; light emitting diodes; optical communication equipment; optical crosstalk; optical design techniques; optical modulation; optimisation; visible spectra;3D high order CSK constellation optimization; IEEE 802.15.7;blue light emitting diodes; color communication channels; color-shift keying design; color-shift keying implementation; data transmission; gain 1 dB to 3 dB; green light emitting diodes; light intensity fluctuations; optical crosstalk; red light emitting diodes; signal transmission; visible light communication intensity modulation scheme; Color; Image color analysis; Light emitting diodes; Noise; Optical receivers; Optical transmitters; Optimization; Color-shift keying (CSK); intensity modulation; visible light communications (VLC) (ID#:14-2937)
  URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6780585&isnumber=6808425

Note:

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