Enhancing signal reliability and illumination uniformity in indoor VLC systems via LEDs configurations

With the ever-increasing realization of the limitations of the radio frequency (RF) spectrum in the evolution towards 5G and 6G communication systems, VLC has been recognized as a high-speed and secure communication system that supports gigabit-per-second data rates. However, in most cases, VLC communication systems are often hampered by issues related to line-of-sight (LOS) propagation and signal shadowing. This paper proposes the optimization of indoor VLC communication systems through the lighting geometry.Using the simulation environment set up in the 5 m × 5 m × 3 m indoor environment and carried out for different LED array patterns including single-centred patterns, square patterns, and circular patterns of 12-LEDs with a radius of 1.5 m, it was determined that the 12-LED array pattern with a radius of 1.5 m lead to an average SNR of 36.7 dB, a BER of 2.5×10^–9, and Fa of 8.24. The superiority of the proposed system was strictly observed in terms of significant improvement over the standard array patterns. Also, from the research carried out, it was ascertained that the proposed system can attain high-order modulation constellations of 256-QAM. The findings of the study clearly highlight that the collaboration of geometric organization and intelligent surfaces is critical in the design of future IoT-enabled communications and smart buildings requiring high spectral efficiency.