Development of IEEE802.15.7 based ITS services using low cost embedded systems

Visible Light Communication (VLC) is the technique adopting electromagnetic frequencies in the visible spectrum for free space optical communications. Although its practical use is still at early stages, in the last few years research activities have been exploring different solutions to achieve high data rates and reliable links using common LEDs and light sensors. VLC can be used in a variety of applications or end user segments, exploiting already existing lighting infrastructures and thus making VLC a cheap communication system. Among these applications, a prominent case study is that of ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems), where car headlamps and traffic lights can be used to communicate and fulfill the requirements of road safety applications. This option turns to be particularly effective in short range direct communications to exploit its line-of-sight feature and overcome the issues related to the isotropic nature of radio waves. Recently IEEE undertook standardization activities on VLC, resulting in the IEEE802.15.7 standard, which disciplines PHY and MAC layer services for Visible-light Personal Area Networks (VPANs). This paper shows the development of a VLC prototype based on IEEE802.15.7 standard, using low cost embedded systems as the target platforms. The aim is to get a device suitable to be integrated in existing PANs, or to cooperate with other wireless networks to provide communication services in complex architectures like ITS.