Optics Communications 339 (2015) 153156

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Optics Communications
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/optcom

Novel user allocation scheme for full duplex multiuser bidirectional Li-
Fi network
Atul Sewaiwar, Samrat Vikramaditya Tiwari, Yeon-Ho Chung n
Department of Information and Communications Engineering, Pukyong National University, Republic of Korea

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A novel user allocation scheme for a full duplex multi-user bidirectional Li-Fi system is proposed. The
Received 20 August 2014 users are allocated into separate color clusters and the user data is transmitted through the allocated
Received in revised form color beams from the RGB (red, green, and blue) light emitting diodes (LEDs) in the form of predened
19 November 2014
frame structure. At the receiving end, primary user separation is achieved by a color sensor that is
Accepted 23 November 2014
Available online 26 November 2014
capable of distinguishing the colors. Similarly, for uplink data transmission, the modulation of the user
data is performed using a different color from the one used to retrieve the data and transmitted through
Keywords: the RGB LED, resulting in a bidirectional VLC link with minimal interference. Simulations demonstrate
Li-Fi that the proposed user allocation scheme is efcient and robust with signicant performance in the
RGB LED
bidirectional Li-Fi system.
User allocation
& 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Color cluster
VLC

1. Introduction allocation and detection process by using a pre-dened structure

Visible light communication (VLC) has drawn much interest
from many researchers and developers focusing largely on de-
signing or developing a system that provides an excellent point-
to-point communication link [1,2]. Recently, VLC has led to Li-Fi
(light delity) as a wireless broadband communication technology.
A successful Li-Fi deployment should have an efcient multiuser
(MU) access scheme to meet the demand for simultaneous net-
work access along with full-edged bidirectional communications.
Some researchers suggested the use of an infrared (IR) link [3] or
RF waves [4] for uplink transmission, while downlink is provided by a
VLC link to achieve a Li-Fi network. Another group of researchers
proposed a time division duplexing (TDD) based bidirectional com-
munication system, but this system operates in half duplex mode and
does not provide any user allocation technique for MU scenarios [5].
Although these schemes address some aspects of the Li-Fi network, a
more comprehensive pure VLC-based MU bidirectional Li-Fi network
is yet to be reported. Moreover, the IEEE standards for VLC [6] do not
specify user allocation schemes in the MU Li-Fi network. Hence, there
is a need for a comprehensive user allocation technique to achieve a
pure Li-Fi network in multiple user environments.
In this paper we propose a solution to efcient user allocation
schemes in bidirectional Li-Fi systems. In this scheme, we simplify user
n
Corresponding author
E-mail address: yhchung@pknu.ac.kr (Y.-H. Chung).
called frame. For the simultaneous transmission of all user data, we
employ the QAM based DCO-OFDMA scheme [7]. Color clustering is
known as an efcient user separation scheme, although the three
distinctive colors are usually applied for minimal interference [8]. We
modulate and transmit user data using the red, green and blue beams
of RGB LEDs. At the receivers, the user separation is performed using a
color sensor that identies respective color and provides output as
individual voltage proportional to the intensity of each color. The up-
link data transmission from the receiver is performed by modulating
the data using a different color from the one used for reception.
2. Frame based color-clustered Li-Fi system
2.1. Frame structure
The proposed scheme is based on frame and its typical struc-
ture is shown in Fig. 1. The three types of frames are proposed, i.e.
synchronization frame, acknowledgement frame and data frame.
The synchronization frame is initially generated and broadcast by
the downlink transmitter (LED array). The synchronization frame is
clearly distinguished by a 1010sequence pattern in the eld of
data bits and the Available/Occupied bit always by 0, i.e. avail-
able, and the Uplink/Downlink bit set to 1, i.e. for downlink
transmission. This synchronization frame is received by the
transceiver unit and the acknowledgement is sent back to the
uplink receiver using the acknowledgement frame.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.optcom.2014.11.076
0030-4018/& 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
154 A. Sewaiwar et al. / Optics Communications 339 (2015) 153156
Fig. 1. User allocation scheme for the Li-Fi network.
Table 1
Uplink color allocation for each received color.
Received color Uplink color
Red Green
Blue Red
Green Blue
The acknowledgement frame is similar to synchronization frame
but the main differences are: (a) the color bit to be set according to
Table 1. For example, if the received synchronization frame shows
the color bit value 1 (Red), then the acknowledgement frame is
transmitted by changing the bit value to 3 (Green), (b) the
Available/Occupied bit value to be changed to 1, i.e. occupied
and (c) the Uplink/Downlink bit value to be set to 0, i.e. for
uplink transmission.
After the successful reception of the acknowledgment frame,
the downlink transmitter then transmits the actual data of the
user using data frames.
Data frames contain the actual data bits and can be transmitted
from either end (uplink or downlink). The Available/Occupied bit
is always 1, i.e. occupied for data transmission. The color bit is set
according to the cluster on downlink and is set according to Ta-
ble 1 on uplink. The Uplink/Downlink bit is set on the basis of
which device transmits. It will be set to 1 when LED array
transmits (downlink), whereas it will be 0 from user device
(uplink). Acknowledgment (ACK) and negative acknowledgment
(NACK) for data frames can be performed by using a special se-
quence of bits in the place of data bits in the frame.
2.2. User allocation
We allocate different users with three primary colors dened as
color clusters. By using 4-QAM, the data of the users in each
cluster is modulated. This modulated data is multiplexed with the
OFDMA scheme. As OFDM cannot be applied to the VLC system in
Fig. 2. Structure of (a) received synchronization frame and (b) acknowledgment frame.
its original form, we need to provide a DC bias to the system, i.e.
DCO-OFDMA. The user capacity can be increased by assigning
specic intensity to each user within the allocated color cluster.
Fig. 1 also illustrates a summary of the user allocation process.
2.3. Detection and user separation
During the primary user separation, the received intensity of
each color can be identied using an RGB color sensor that sepa-
rately converts the RGB intensities into voltages. The process of the
primary separation for the synchronization frames is omitted;
instead, the frames are detected by the receiver to identify and
save the values of color and intensity in the memory for the re-
ception of future data frames.
Once the frame is occupied by one transceiver unit, the ac-
knowledgement frame will be sent to the transmitter by setting
the values of Available/Occupied and Uplink/Downlink in the
frame. The acknowledgement frames are transmitted by using the
uplink colors as shown in Table 1. For the present study, it is as-
sumed that the control bits of the received frame, i.e. rst 4 bits
and last 2 bits of the frame, are protected via powerful error cor-
recting codes and are thus error-free.
The successful reception and processing of the frame ensure
that the user is now allocated with the given color and intensity
for further VLC transmissions. As an example, Fig. 2a shows the
received synchronization frame in which the rst bit represents
the color of transmission 1, i.e. Red. As per Table 1, for every
frame received from the red color cluster, the green color is used
for uplink transmission. Fig. 2b illustrates an acknowledgement
frame for uplink transmission. The rst bit of the acknowl-
edgement frame is changed to 3, representing the green color
while keeping its intensity unchanged. Also, the Available/Occu-
pied bit is now changed to 1, i.e. occupied, while the Uplink/
Downlink bit is changed to 0, i.e. uplink transmission.
Within a particular color cluster, the color used for downlink
data transmission is different from the one for uplink data trans-
mission. Hence, there will be less chance of interference between
 A. Sewaiwar et al. / Optics Communications 339 (2015) 153156
Fig. 3. (a) BER performance of the proposed system. (b) Data speed relative to the number of users.
Fig. 4. (a) Color cluster based indoor VLC environment. (b) Downlink BER distribution in an indoor environment.
the transmitted and received data. Also, the structure of the frame
is useful to differentiate the users and also to provide bidirectional
links.
3. Performance analysis
To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method in a Li-Fi
system, we performed simulations under additive white Gaussian
noise (AWGN). It can be observed from the BER performances in
Fig. 3a that the performances of both uplink and downlink
transmission are approximately similar with increasing values of
SNR. This is due to the fact that the proposed scheme employs
unique frame structure and distinctive color allocation for down-
link and uplink data transmission for minimal interference.
Therefore, it can be said that the proposed user allocation scheme
offers very efcient full-duplex bidirectional data transmission
with signicant performance.
As the number of users increases, the data speed of the scheme
would be deemed decreasing, because of small intensity separa-
tion and a limited number of subcarriers within a color cluster.
Thus, it is worth investigating the effect of the increasing number
of users on the scheme. Fig. 3b shows the data speed relative to
the number of users. It is clear that the maximum achievable user
data speed is 1 Gbps for up to three users (one user per color
cluster) and then it decreases with the increasing number of users.
However, the scheme supports a data speed of 250 Mbps up to 12
users. It should be noted that every user is allocated with a single
frame having a specic color and intensity value.
155
As the number of users decreases, the data frames allocated to
the users will be released, resulting in the increase in the data
speed for the remaining users. Therefore, the data speed is subject
to the number of users.
In addition, the downlink BER distribution in a typical indoor
environment shown in Fig. 4a is evaluated. Fig. 4b shows its result.
It is evident that the scheme provides excellent BER performance
across the room except for the far corners.
Therefore, the performance analysis veries an efcient and
high speed multiuser bidirectional VLC data transmission using
the proposed frame based user allocation scheme.
4. Conclusion
A novel user allocation scheme for a full-duplex Li-Fi system is
proposed for indoor VLC environments. The proposed frame based
scheme offers a two-way data communication with minimal in-
terference by allocating users into separate spectral bands dened
as red, green and blue color clusters. The user data is modulated
with QAM-DCO-OFDMA and transmitted by allocating the users
with distinctive intensities of three different color clusters. The si-
mulation results demonstrate that the proposed bidirectional
scheme is efcient and robust in a typical indoor VLC environment.
Acknowledgments
This research is funded by the Research Grant of BB (Brain
Busan) 21 project of 2014.
156 A. Sewaiwar et al. / Optics Communications 339 (2015) 153156
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