High-speed visible light communication systems

This article presents recent achievements and trends in high-speed indoor visible light communication (VLC) research. We address potential applications and future visions for the VLC technology, where transport of information is “piggybacked” on the original lighting function of LED-based lamps. To mature this technology and transfer it into practice, our recent research is focused on real-time implementation and trials. For the first time, a bidirectional real-time VLC prototype achieving data rates of up to 500 Mb/s is presented. This system paves the way for future real world applications. Finally, we discuss the remaining technical challenges as well as the research outlook in the field of high-speed VLC systems.