A new light source of VLC combining white LEDs and RGB LEDs

In this paper, a new light source of visible light communication (VLC) systems is firstly proposed for illumination and data transmission simultaneously. The new light source is composed of white light emitting diodes (LEDs) and one or more sets of red, green, and blue (RGB) LEDs. White LEDs provide the function of illumination, while RGB LEDs are utilized as antennas for information transmission. There are seven combinations of RGB LEDs used for communication. Six of the seven combinations are investigated except the combination of RGB LEDs, which are introduced in detail in the scenario and light source model. Firstly, we investigate the quality of light source using the color rendering index (CRI) of light source. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the receiver is analyzed theoretically from the perspective of communication. Finally, we analyze the power ratio of RGB LEDs and white LEDs under the constraints of CRI, SNR, and bit error rate (BER). The simulation results show that the new light source can be used for VLC. The power of the RGB LEDs can be adjusted to meet the communication and illumination needs of different scenarios.