Impact of industrial environments on visible light communication

authored by

Daniel Schneider, Abhijeet Shrotri, Holger Flatt, Stübbe Oliver Stübbe, Alexander Wolf, Roland Lachmayer, Christian Alexander Bunge

Abstract

Visible-light communication is a promising technology for industrial environments. However, a variety of physical effects may influence the communication quality in this potentially harsh environment: Dust and other particles lead to increased attenuation. Artificial light sources and industrial processes, such as grinding and welding, cause optical cross-talk. A multitude of reflective surfaces can lead to fading due to multi-path propagation. These three aspects are experimentally investigated in exemplary manufacturing processes at five different production sites in order to estimate the relative importance and their specific impact on VLC transmission in industrial areas. Spectral measurements demonstrate the presence of interfering light sources, which occupy broad parts of the visible spectrum. They give rise to flickering noise, which comprises a set of frequencies in the electrical domain. The impact of these effects on the communication is analysed with reference to the maximum achievable channel capacity and data rate approximation based on on-off keying is deduced. It is found that cross-talk by environmental and artificial light sources is one of the strongest effects, which influences the optical, but also the electrical spectrum. It is also observed that industrial areas differ strongly and must be categorised according to the manufacturing processes, which can induce quite a variation of dust and attenuation accordingly.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Motion Engineering and Mechanism Design
PhoenixD: Photonics, Optics, and Engineering - Innovation Across Disciplines

External Organisation(s)

Fraunhofer-Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation (IOSB)
Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences
Leipzig University of Applied Sciences

Type

Article

Journal

Optics Express

Volume

29

Pages

16087-16104

No. of pages

18

ISSN

1094-4087

Publication date

24.05.2021

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.421757 (Access: Open)