Outdoor Visible Light Communication For Inter-

Vehicle Communication Using Controller Area

Network

Deok-Rae Kim, Se-Hoon Yang, Hyun-Seung Kim, Yong-Hwan Son and Sang-Kook Han
Dept. of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Yonsei University
Seoul, South Korea
lantiz@yonsei.ac.kr

Abstract—In this paper, we implemented the outdoor Visible that we installed this device to common use device such as
Light Communication (VLC) system based on Controller Area head and rear light. And then we tried to communicate between
Network (CAN) which is normally used in a car, plane, ship, transmitter and receiver module. For communication, we
product line control system, medical device and industrial device. choose an ON-OFF Keying modulation format and 500 kBaud
For vehicle to vehicle (V2V) or indoor vehicle communication, we transmission rate. Total communication distance was 20 m in
used common use device such as head light and back light. We the daytime outdoor condition and its transmission
made an application circuit and explained the principle. Also, we performance less than Q-factor of 10 has been verified.
found an outdoor VLC problem which is sun light noise and
photo detector (PD) saturation problem. Circuit's pulse features
were demonstrated by signal. Total communication distance was
20 m in the daytime outdoor condition and its experimental
transmission performance is presented

Keywords-component; VLC; CAN, Vehicle communication;

Sunlight noise; PD saturation

I. INTRODUCTION
Light Emitting Diode (LED)’s price has been dropped and
has been improved luminous efficiency rapidly. Special
lighting market and general light market has been extended.
Especially, LED has in compact size, longevity, and low power
consumption.[1] And also nowadays many new application in
which combine LED light and communication are
developing.[2][3][4]. Thus, many countries which are South
Korea, the United States, Japan, Europe, etc. recognize the
benefit of LED. VLC is the communication method using LED.
It uses a visible wavelength (380～780 nm). So VLC can use a
communication and lamp simultaneously. [5][6] Recently car’s
head light, back light, indoor light, directional light, and etc.
are installed by high power LED. And these days V2V
communication using VLC LED has not been started yet. So
when we use VLC in vehicle, Intelligent Transportation
System (ITS), drivers should be more convenience and get
more driving safety than before.[7]
Here, we investigated that the outdoor main issue which is
sun light noise, PD saturation problem, the method of
improving distance and etc. So we made filter design, optical
design and effective signal correction circuit for our transmitter,
receiver module. We performed simulation and experiment
about outdoor VLC using CAN. In hardware, to transmit CAN
signal, we made CAN transceiver and application circuit. After
Figure 1. Concept of vehicle VLC using CAN
II. SYSTEM CONFIGURATION
A. Concept of vehicle VLC communication
The concept of experiment is shown in Figure 1. Almost
every car’s control signals are made by CAN such as a light,
engine control, air bag control, car speed, engine RPM signal
and etc. Thus, if drivers receive a CAN signal, they can get
information of near vehicle. For example, drivers can know
how fast near vehicle, which direction they want to go, even
they get some simple text message from other driver. So
drivers should be more convenience and get more safety
driving. As you can see in Figure1, head and rear LED light of
center car transmits signal to near car’s receiver module.
Transmitted signal is received from receiver module. And it
signal is processed by processing module. That processed
signal is sent to display panel or dash board for driver.

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B. Circuit configuration and application
For experiment, we made transmitter and receiver. It is
shown in Figure 2, 3. We used a commercial head and rear
light. On the right side is transmitter part and on the left side is
receiver part. To generate a digital signal, we used CAN signal
generation device (PEAK, NI). It generates CAN low
(1.5V~2.5V) and CAN high (2.5V~3.5V) signal. These signals
are changed by CAN transceiver. And CAN transceiver make
differential signal using CAN high and CAN low signal. As we
know, LED can modulate digital signal ‘1’,’0’. When current is
supplied LED, it modulate digital signal ‘1’ and current isn’t
supplied LED, it modulate digital signal ‘0’.
In our transmitter, when digital signal ‘1’ of transceiver was
passed to switch IC, switch IC was changed open state and at
the same time LED was off. In another case, LED was on. We
already said that VLC can use a communication and lamp
simultaneously. This is the reason why we used this way. In
our receiver, PD detected the luminance change. At this time,
PD converted photon to current. This current was passed to
Transimpedance Amp (TIA). TIA converted current to voltage.
Because almost every ICs are voltage driving. After that, we
used limiting amplifier. Because the received signal power was
changed by distance, light power and input current power.
limiting amplifier had a constant output value regardless of
Figure 3. Receiver circuit design and received signal
input signal power (VPP). This means when received signal was
high, it was decreased by limiting amplifier. In another case, III. OUTDOOR VLC ISSUES AND OVERCOME
when received signal was low, received signal was increased
by limiting amplifier. So it maintains almost the same value. A. PD saturation
This output of limiting amplifier was passed to bias control VLC generally uses the Intensity Modulated Direct
circuit. For using CAN transceiver, we used bias control circuit. Detection (IM/DD). However, it causes PD saturation problem
This circuit controlled input DC level of CAN transceiver. in the day time outdoor condition. To overcome this saturation
CAN transceiver can divide into CAN high and CAN low problem, we used a light shield and filter. In case of our
signal. We detected this CAN signal using Digital Phosphor experimental setup, sun light luminance was tens of thousands
Oscilloscope (DPO). It can measure Q-Factor. Thus, we can of lux. However, LED generates just tens of lux. In addition to,
get a reliability of our system. PD is working properly in LED luminance area. So, if PD
wants to detect the LED light signal in the daytime outdoor
condition, PD operates in saturation area. In this case, the LED
light signal is too hard to detect. To overcome sun light noise
and PD saturation, we tried to experimental confirmation
which is shown in Figure 4. The transmitted signal which is a
500 KHz frequency carrier was generated by signal generator.
And this signal was received and analyzed by RF spectrum
device.
In Figure 4, (A) was an outdoor experimental enviroment.
(B) was a receiver part shape using light shield. (C) was RF
spectrum view when receiver part used only RED filter. (D)
was RF spectrum view when receiver nonused of light shield
and filter. (E) was RF spectrum view when receiver used only a
light shield. (F) was RF spectrum view when receiver used a
light shield and RED filter. In case of (C), measured RF power
was a –87.61 dBm at 500 KHz. And measured RF power of (D)
was a –85.47 dBm. It’s almost similar. However, in case of (E),
we saw significant improvements of RF power. Measured RF
power of (E) was a –24.20 dBm. Because of (E) case using
light shield. Final case of (F), It used a light shield and RED
filter. Measured RF power of (F) was almost the same as (E),
however, overall sun light noise is reduced. So case of (E) had
Figure 2. Transmitter circuit design and transmitted signal higher Carrier to Noise Ratio better than other cases. We could
see a reduced sun light noise and Carrier to Noise Ratio

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improving. So, when we use the light shield and filter, we
could reduce the outdoor sunlight noise. Thus, we applied this
experimental result to our transmitter and receiver.
Figure 4. Outdoor communication channel environment analysis
Figure 5. Optical lens design for improving distance
B. Transmit distance
Even though we solve many outdoor VLC problems, if the
signal doesn’t reach the receiver, this signal couldn’t recognize.
To solve this recognize problem, we tried to design an optical
lens. So we designed transmitter and receiver’s optical lens
which is shown in Figure 5. In case of transmitter lens which is
shown in Figure 5’s (A), (B) was attached in head of
transmitter. And to find a proper lens position for receiver, we
tried to change distance between lens and PD. This experiment
is shown in Figure 5’s (E), (F). After that we applied this lens
design to our transmitter and receiver module which is shown
in Figure 5’s (C), (D). Because of this lens design, we
improved communication distance to 20 m in the daytime
outdoor situation.
Figure 6. Outdoor VLC experimental setup
IV. THE EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AND ANALYSIS OF RESULTS
A. The experimental setup
Figure 6 is my outdoor VLC experimental setup. It was in
the daytime outdoor condition. Direct sun light luminance was
almost 20000 lux. The other case of sun light was about 3000
lux. CAN signal was generated from CAN signal generation
devices (PEAK, NI). These devices were connected to
computer using USB. Transmitter module was supplied by
18~20 voltage. And 245mA was applied to LED from switch
IC output. Receiver module was supplied by 5V and bias
control voltage was 1.4V at that time driving current was
260mA. Transmitter and receiver height was 20 cm from the
ground. And communication distance was 20 m between
transmitter and receiver.
B. Measure of changing performance according to
experimantal setup
For performance evaluation, we tried to measure of our
system. Transmitter was fixed in our experimental setup. And
we changed distance between transmitter and receiver. We
checked four cases. First, we used head light module with lens
and second, head light module without lens and third, rear light
module with lens and last, rear light module without lens.
Performance evaluation was measured by Q-Factor of DPO
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device. We got a different performance from our experimental
cases. It is shown in Figure 7. In case of head light and back
light with lens, its transmission performance has been verified
Q-factor of 10 in 20 m. Q-factor of 6 is almost the same as
BER 10-9.[8] In case of head light and back light without lens,
it transmission performance has been verified Q-factor
[3] Lubin Zeng; Hoa Le Minh; O'Brien, D.; Faulkner, G.; Kyungwoo
Lee; Daekwang Jung; YunJe Oh; , “Equalisation for high-speed
Visible Light Communications using white-LEDs” , Communication
Systems, Networks and Digital Signal Processing, 2008. CNSDSP 2008.
6th International Symposium on, pp170 – 173, 2008
[4] Komine, T. and Nakagawa, M., “Performance evaluation of visible-
light wireless communication system using white LED lightings“,
Computers and Communications, 2004. Proceedings. ISCC 2004. Ninth
International Symposium on, pp258-263 Vol.1, 2004
[5] Y. Tanaka, T. Komine, S. Haruyama, and M. Nakagawa, "Indoor visible
light transmission system utilizing white LED lights", IEICE Trans. on
Commun.,vol. E86-B, no. 8, pp. 2440-2454, Aug.2003.
[6] T. Komine, M. Kakagawa, "Fundamental analysisfor visible-light
communication system using LED lights", IEEE Trans. on Consumer
Electron., vol.50, no. 1, pp. 100-107, Feb. 2004.
[7] D.Kim, S. Yang, H. Kim, Y. Son, Y. Won, S. Han, “Implement of
visible light communication for CAN signal transmissioin,” Photonics
conference 2011, Dec. 2011, pp.45-46
[8] Gerd Keisser, Optical Fiber comminications, 3rd ed., Mc Graw Hill,
2000, pp.286-287

Figure 7. Changing performance according to experimental setup

V. CONCLUSION
In summary, we implemented the Visible Light
Communication system based on CAN communication which
is usually used in a car, plane, ship, product line control system,
medical device and industrial device. And we also investigated
the outdoor VLC issues which are sun light noise, PD
saturation and the method of improving distance. To solve
these issues, we applied optical filter and lens design to our
transmitter and receiver module. It was made by commercial
head and rear light. For effective signal correction, we made a
application circuit and we combined this application circuit and
CAN devices. As a result, total communication distance was 20
m in the daytime outdoor condition and its system performance
has been verified Q-factor of 6 which is the same as BER 10-9.
From this research, we investigated the possibility of
integration between CAN and outdoor VLC. So we are
expecting to contribute to the research of ITS and outdoor VLC.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work has been supported by the Broadcasting-
Communications R&D Program of Korea Communications
Commission/Korea Communications Agency (No. 11911-
01111) and the IT R&D program of MKE/KEIT [10035362,
Development of Home Network Technology based on LED-
ID].
REFERENCES
[1] Gu. Y., N. Narendran, and J. P. Freyssinier, "White LED Performance",
4th International Conference on Solid State Lighting, Proceedings of
SPIE 5530, pp. 119-124, 2004.
[2] Shogo Kitano, Shinichiro Haruyama and Masao Nakagawa, “LED Road
Illumination Communications System”, Vehicular Technology
Conference, pp. 3346 – 3350, 2003.

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