LiFi technology for vehicle to vehicle communication in poor weather conditions

Abstract

Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication using LIFI (Light Fidelity) technology under fog conditions is presented. Fog is known as one of the most detrimental atmospheric conditions that causes outdoor optical wireless communications to be unreliable.

Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication using LIFI (Light Fidelity) technology under fog conditions is presented. Fog is known as one of the most detrimental atmospheric conditions that causes outdoor optical wireless communications to be unreliable. The effect of the fog conditions is experimentally analyzed in the LIFI- based V2V system. Recognizing distance between two vehicles, a tail-light color of a vehicle, a high density light-emitting diode (LED) was employed in the experiment. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed LIFI-based V2V system offers a reliable V2V data transmission over the fog-impaired optical channel with an ultrasonic sensor, even under a heavy fog condition. It is believed that vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications and accurate positioning with submeter error could bring vehicle safety to a different level. However, to this date it is still unclear whether the envisioned V2V standard, dedicated short-range communications, can become available in commercially available vehicle products, while widely available consumer grade GPS receivers do not provide the required accuracy for many safety applications. The combining visible light communications and visible light positioning, we propose the use of smart automotive lighting in vehicle safety systems. These lights would be able to provide the functions of illumination and signaling, reliable communications, and accurate positioning in a single solution. The proposed solution has low complexity and is shown to be scalable in high vehicle density and fast topology changing scenarios. We also present several design guidelines for such a system, based on the results of our analytic and empirical studies. Finally, evaluation of our prototype provides evidence that the system can indeed detect potential risks in advance and provide early warnings to the driver in real-world scenarios, lowering the probability of traffic accidents. Index Terms: Light Fidelity (LIFI), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication.