Cascaded PLC-VLC Channel Using OFDM and CSK Techniques

This paper puts in Cascade the power line communications (PLC) channel and the visible light communications (VLC) channel, in order to use the PLC channel as backbone for the VLC channel. This combination is suitable for applications in which hybrid PLC-VLC systems are needed. We investigate the behavior of the cascaded channels for a full link transmission. Quadrature phase shift keying combined with orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (QPSK-OFDM) is used over the PLC channel and color shift keying (CSK) is deployed over the VLC channel to convey the information. Cascaded channel variances are analyzed. Complete simulated bit error rate (BER) is analyzed and presented for multiple scenarii that could occur in the two channels.