Area spectral efficiency performance comparison between VLC and RF femtocell networks

In this paper the average area spectral efficiency (ASE) of indoor visible light communication (VLC) wireless network is investigated for various room geometries (2.5m×5m×3m, 5m×5m×3m and 10m×10m×3m). A comparison is made against state-of-the-art radio frequency (RF) systems employing femtocells indoors. A modified version of the wireless world initiative new radio (WINNER) indoor deployment scenario (office building) is used as the common setup where femtocell access points (APs) and VLC APs are installed alternatively. For the RF system the minimum number of femtocell APs per floor area is four as specified. The requirement for the VLC system is to fulfill the lighting conditions inside the room, characterized by the illuminance distribution in rooms with several possible dimensions. The ASE gains of the VLC system compared to the femtocell network range between 12 and 924 (depending on the number of femtocell APs and floor geometry).