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2016 J. Semicond. 37 011001

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Vol. 37, No. 1 Journal of Semiconductors January 2016

Advances and prospects in visible light communications

Chen Hongda(陈弘达)1; Ž , Wu Chunhui(吴春晖)1 , Li Honglei(李洪磊)1 , Chen Xiongbin(陈雄斌)1 ,
Gao Zongyu(高宗余)1 , Cui Shigang(崔世钢)2 , and Wang Qin(王琴)3
1 State Key Laboratory on Integrated Optoelectronics, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Beijing 100083, China
2 Tianjin University of Technology and Education, Tianjin 300222, China
3 Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China

Abstract: Visible light communication (VLC) is an emerging technology in optical wireless communication
(OWC) that has attracted worldwide research in recent years. VLC can combine communication and illumina-
tion together, which could be applied in many application scenarios such as visible light communication local area
networks (VLANs), indoor localization, and intelligent lighting. In recent years, pioneering and significant work
have been made in the field of VLC. In this paper, an overview of the recent progress in VLC is presented. We
also demonstrate our recent experiment results including bidirectional 100 Mbit/s VLAN or Li-Fi system based on
OOK modulation without blue filter. The VLC systems that we proposed are good solutions for high-speed VLC
application systems with low-cost and low-complexity. VLC technology shows a bright future due to its inherent
advantages, shortage of RF spectra and ever increasing popularity of white LEDs.

Key words: white LEDs; visible light communication; optical wireless communication; Li-Fi system; OOK;
equalization
DOI: 10.1088/1674-4926/37/1/011001 PACS: 42.79.Sz; 42.72.Bj; 85.60.Jb EEACC: 4270

1. Introduction sumption. VLC is considered as a potential access option for

In recent years, white light-emitting-diodes (LEDs) are
considered to be a promising technology for next generation il-
lumination due to their low power consumption, long lifetime
and high efficiency. Compared with traditional incandescent
and fluorescent lamps, white LEDs have high speed modu-
lation characteristics, thus, these devices can be utilized for
illumination and communication simultaneously. Nowadays,
communication via visible light wave (380–780 nm) is con-
stantly gaining attention in research and development world-
wide, driven by the progress on LED technology for solid-state
lighting.
Visible light communication (VLC), also known as opti-
cal wireless communication (OWC) or Li-Fi, has many attrac-
tive advantagesŒ1; 2 . First, VLC can provide an additional ser-
vice at a comparably low extra cost due to reusing the ubiq-
uitous lighting infrastructure. Second, it has an unregulated
spectrum, specifically from 400 to 800 THz, which provides
a huge communication bandwidth to deliver license-free ex-
tremely high data rate services. Third, the VLC spectrum can
be spatially reused in adjacent communication cells. Fourth,
VLC provides high secrecy. Its narrow beamwidth and line of
sight (LOS) constraint protect the communication from eaves-
dropping. Moreover, VLC has immunity to radio frequency
interference. Traditional radio frequency (RF)-based wireless
communication has arrived at a bottleneck because of the short-
age of RF spectra, limited potential to exploit and power con-
future 5G wireless communications due to its advantagesŒ3 .
Visible local area network (VLAN) or Li-Fi has been studied
and demonstrated by researchers around the worldŒ4; 5 . VLC
technology can also be applied in high accuracy indoor posi-
tioning and navigation systemsŒ6 8 , vehicle to traffic light and
vehicle to vehicle communication, underwater communication,
and information broadcastingŒ9 . VLC is an emerging technol-
ogy in OWC that stimulates worldwide research.
The paper is organized as follows. Advances in VLC tech-
nology are discussed in Section 2. In Section 3, we present our
recent experiment results of high-speed VLC systems includ-
ing a real-time 500 Mb/s VLC system at the distance of 1.6 m
and a bidirectional 100 Mbit/s VLAN or Li-Fi system based on
OOK modulation without blue filter. In Section 4, we discuss
some challenges of VLC and then give some prospects in VLC
technology. Finally, important conclusions are drawn.
2. Advances in VLC technology
The earliest known use of visible light wireless commu-
nication comes from Alexander Graham Bell, who developed
a photophone in 1880, which transmitted voice data over 200
m using beams of sunlightŒ10; 11 . The concept of using LEDs
for visible light communication was firstly presented by Pang
et al. in 1999Œ12; 13 . In the early 2000s, indoor wireless com-
munication based on white LEDs was proposed by Tanaka
et al. at Keio University, JapanŒ14; 15 . The visible light com-

* Project supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (Nos. 2015AA033303, 2013AA013602,
2013AA013603, 2013AA03A104), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61178051, 61321063, 61335010, 61178048,
61275169), and the National Basic Research Program of China (Nos. 2013CB329205, 2011CBA00608).
† Corresponding author. Email: hdchen@semi.ac.cn
Received 8 October 2015 © 2016 Chinese Institute of Electronics

011001-1
J. Semicond. 2016, 37(1)
Figure 1. (Color online) 100 Mb/s video broadcast based on VLC system architecture and pictures of the France Telecom show room in Rennes
[17, OMEGA project, 2011].
munication consortium (VLCC) was established in November,
2003, with major companies in Japan. The VLCC is aiming
to publicize and standardize the VLC technologyŒ16 . In 2008,
home gigabit access project (OMEGA) in Europe aims at de-
veloping a user-friendly home access network capable of de-
livering high-bandwidth services and content at a transmission
speed of one gigabit per second. The interdisciplinary project
consortium consists of 20 European partners from industry and
academia, such as Siemens and France Telecom. In 2011, a
100 Mbps video broadcast based on visible LED on ceiling
lighting was achieved, as shown in Figure 1Œ17 . In this project,
VLC as an optical wireless communication to existing wireless
RF technologies is researched and developed. In USA, the Na-
tional Science Foundation (NSF) Smart Lighting Engineering
Research Center (ERC) was founded in 2008 by the NSF. ERC
propose that beyond illumination, smart lighting engineering
will simultaneously provide high-speed data access and scan
for biological and biochemical hazardsŒ18 . In the same year,
the IEEE 802.15.7 VLC task group prepared to discuss the
VLC standardization, and then published the first IEEE stan-
dard for VLC in 2011Œ19 . A PHY and an MAC layer for short-
range optical wireless communications using visible light in
optically transparent media were definedŒ20 . In China, VLC
technology was scheduled by Lu Yongxiang in 2008, former
president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); he pro-
moted the research work of VLC technology at the Institute of
Semiconductors, CAS. A semiconductor lighting information
network (S2-link) project was proposed and researched, then in
2010, the VLC smart home system and 2 Mbps VLAN or Li-
Fi system were demonstrated in the Shanghai World ExpoŒ21 .
There are many other VLC research groups around the world
including universities, corporations, etc.Œ23 36 .
There are two mainly common methods to produce white
light illumination by using LEDs. One way is using red–
green–blue (RGB) or red–green–blue–amble (RGBA) emit-
ters, the other way is using blue emitters in combination with
a phosphor layer. The RGB solution is more preferable than
phosphor-based LEDs to improve the VLC data rate, since it
has a higher bandwidth and offers the possibility for wave-
length division multiplexing (WDM), which further increases
the overall transmission capacity. However, in view of the low
cost, low complexity and market dominance, phosphor-based
011001-2
Chen Hongda et al.
white LEDs are more attractive for the VLC system compared
with triple-chip RGB LEDs. In fact, high power white LEDs
especially phosphorescent white LEDs (P-LED) have a limited
bandwidth of several to dozens of mega hertz, which limit the
overall data rate of VLC systems. Therefore, many approaches
to extend the overall data rate of VLC systems have been stud-
ied and investigated.
Most VLC researchers are interest in spectrally efficient
modulation techniques such as orthogonal frequency division
multiplexing (OFDM), discrete multitone modulation (DMT),
and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), and wavelength
division multiplexing (WDM) and so on to enhance the overall
data rate by increasing the bandwidth efficiency. Using a single
chip blue-phosphor LED, a transmission rate at 513 Mb/s based
on DMT modulation has been demonstrated at 1000 lxŒ37 .
Azhar et al. demonstrate a four-channel MIMO VLC link at
1 Gbit/s based on phosphorescent white LED, each transmit-
ting signals at 250 Mb/s using OFDM modulation and digital
equalizationŒ23 . Khalid et al. use phosphor-based white LED
and realize a data rate of 1 Gbit/s VLC link by using an opti-
mized DMT modulation and adaptive bit and power loading al-
gorithmsŒ38 . By using RGB-type white LEDs based on WDM
and DMT modulation, 803 Mb/s VLC link was reported by Vu-
cic et al. in 2011Œ39 . Cossu et al. presented a 3.4 Gb/s visible
light communication system using RGB white LED and ex-
ploiting an optimized DMT modulation in 2012Œ40 . In 2014,
Prof. Nan Chi et al. reported 3.75 Gbit/s and 4.22 Gbit/s VLC
systems that used RGB LEDsŒ41;42 . Figure 2 shows the ar-
chitecture of the 4.22 Gbit/s VLC system. 5.6 Gbit/s down-
link aggregate bitrate is achieved exploiting the WDM ap-
proach, commercial RGBA LEDs and DMT modulationŒ43 .
Figure 3 shows the block diagram of the experimental setup of
the 5.6 Gb/s VLC system.
Analog pre-emphasis or equalization circuits can also be
utilized to extend the 3-dB modulation bandwidth of the VLC
link and improve the data rate of VLC systems. Analog equal-
ization technology is mainly applied to OOK modulation. It
is worth mentioning that digital equalization technology could
also be utilized to advance the modulation methodŒ22 . Com-
pared with digital equalization, analog equalization technology
is much easier to implement for real-time high-speed VLC sys-
tems. O’Brien et al. proposed a pre-equalizer; the pre-equalized
J. Semicond. 2016, 37(1) Chen Hongda et al.

Figure 2. (Color online) The architecture of 4.22 Gbit/s VLC system based on RGB LEDs and hybrid time-frequency adaptive equalization
algorithmŒ42 .

Figure 3. (Color online) Block diagram of the experimental setup of the 5.6 Gb/s VLC systemŒ43 .

Figure 4. (Color online) VLC system of 662 Mb/s by a blue LED, 600Mb/s by a red LED and 520 Mb/s by a green LED based on OOK-NRZ
modulation of a commercially available RGB-type white LED using pre-emphasis and post equalizing techniquesŒ48 .

bandwidth was 45 MHz and data rate was 80 Mb/sŒ44 . They
also proposed multiple-resonant equalization to enhance the
bandwidth of 16 LED arrays to 25 MHz, then 40 Mb/s was
achievedŒ45 . In Reference [46], O’Brien et al. used a simple
analog RC-based post-equalizer to improve the bandwidth of
the VLC link to 50 MHz, and 100 Mb/s was achieved. In Refer-
ence [47], Fujimoto et al. proposed a practical LED driver with
a pre-emphasis circuit; the pre-emphasis circuit improved the
3-dB bandwidth of RGB LED (red LED) from 6.2 to 91 MHz,
and the 160 MHz bandwidth was achieved by using peaking
characteristics of operational amplifier, then 477 Mb/s could
be achieved under the distance of 40 cm when only a red LED

011001-3
J. Semicond. 2016, 37(1)
Figure 5. (Color online) Adaptive 84.44 to 190 Mb/s white-light phosphor-LED VLC system based on 16 QAM-OFDM modulation scheme
without blue filterŒ56 .
was modulated and the green and blue LEDs were OFF. In
2014, Fujimoto et al. demonstrated visible light transmission
of 662 Mb/s by a blue LED, 600 Mb/s by a red LED and
520 Mb/s by a green LED based on OOK-NRZ modulation
of a commercially available RGB-type white LED using pre-
emphasis and post equalizing techniquesŒ48 , as shown in Fig-
ure 4. Kishi showed a high speed LED driver that sweeps out
the remaining carriers to improve the data rate to 95 Mb/sŒ49 .
200 Mb/sŒ50 , 340 Mb/sŒ51 , and 550 Mb/sŒ52 VLC systems
have been achieved based on OOK modulation of phosphores-
cent white LEDs and analog equalization circuits by Li, Chen,
et al.. These results show that analog equalization technology
is also an efficient way to improve the data rate of VLC systems
with a limited bandwidth of LEDs.
For phosphorescent white LEDs, blue-filtering could filter
out the slower yellow component and get faster directly mod-
ulated blue emission, which could improve the data rate of the
VLC linkŒ53 . In most of the high-speed phosphor-based VLC
systems ever reported, an optical blue filter is usually used,
which is regarded as a critical optical component. In Refer-
ence [54], Sung et al. first explicitly analyzed the function of
blue filters, they consider that in the DMT VLC system, the
blue optical filter may be unnecessary, and even degrade the
transmission performance by reducing the optical signal-to-
noise ratio (SNR). In Reference [55], Yeh et al. demonstrated
a 37 Mb/s real-time white-light phosphor-LED VLC system
based on OFDM modulation without using a blue filter. In
Reference [56], Yeh and Chow et al. demonstrated an adap-
tive 84.44 to 190 Mb/s white-light phosphor-LED VLC sys-
tem based on a 16 QAM-OFDM modulation scheme without
a blue filter, as Figure 5 shows. Recently, we also carried out
some experiments and research on high-speed VLC systems
011001-4
Chen Hongda et al.
without a blue filter based on analog equalizers. In Reference
[57], 330 Mb/s OOK-NRZ data transmission and 672 Mb/s
64-QAM data transmission VLC systems without a blue fil-
ter have been shown. In Reference [58], we also demonstrate
a 682 Mb/s phosphorescent white LED visible light communi-
cations utilizing analog equalized 16 QAM-OFDM modulation
without a blue filter. These results show that high speed VLC
systems could be realized even without a blue filter, and analog
equalization circuits can also be helpful to advanced modula-
tion schemes such as OFDM.
As Table 1 illustrates, we give a summary sheet of the re-
cent representative advances in VLC, by 2014. VLC technol-
ogy has developed rapidly especially in increasing the data rate
recently. By 2014, 5.6 Gb/s is the highest data rate VLC sys-
tem by utilizing RGBA white LEDs and the DMT modulation
scheme. For VLC systems, different modulation schemes or
LED sources have different data rates. For a certain bandwidth
of VLC system, OFDM or DMT modulation schemes have
a higher data rate ability with a higher bandwidth efficiency
than the OOK modulation scheme. RGB or RGBA white LEDs
have a potential for a higher data rate since their possibility for
WDM, which further increases the overall transmission capac-
ity. However, OOK modulation is simple, and it is difficult to
implement complexity modulation such as OFDM or DMT by
using hardware, thus, most of the VLC systems based on DMT
or OFDM modulations are processed with off-line processing
in a lab experiment. In addition, P-LEDs are more common
in the market with low-cost and low-complexity than RGB or
RGBA white LEDs. Therefore, it is more attractive for VLC
researchers to realize high-speed real-time VLC systems uti-
lizing P-LEDs and OOK modulation. In 2014, we experimen-
tally demonstrate a 550 Mb/s real-time VLC system based on
J. Semicond. 2016, 37(1) Chen Hongda et al.

Table 1. Recent representative research advances in VLC.

Year Research group LED source 3-dB Modulation Data rate Distance Comment Reference
bandwidth
2008 University of Ox- P-LED 45 MHz OOK 80 Mb/s 10 cm Real-time Œ44
ford and Samsung
Electronics Co.
Ltd
2009 University of Ox- P-LED 50 MHz OOK 100 Mb/s 10 cm Real-time Œ46
ford and Samsung
Electronics Co.
Ltd
2010 Fraunhofer Insti- P-LED 35 MHz DMT 513 Mb/s 30 cm Off-line Œ37
tute for Telecom-
munications,
Heinrich-Hertz-
Institute et al.
2011 Fraunhofer Insti- RGB LED 15-20 MHz WDM-DMT 803 Mb/s 12 cm Off-line Œ39
tute for Telecom- (each chan-
munications, nel)
Heinrich-Hertz-
Institute et al.
2012 University of Ox- P-LED 65 MHz MIMO- 1.1 Gb/s 1m Off-line Œ23
ford OFDM
2012 Scuola Superiore RGB LED — WDM-DMT 3.4 Gb/s 10 cm Off-line Œ40
Sant’Anna, Italy
2012 Fudan University, P-LED RGB — OFDM 225 Mb/s 575 66 cm Off-line Œ28
China LED WDM- Mb/s
OFDM
2013 National Chiao RGB LED — WDM- 3.22 Gb/s 25 cm Off-line Œ62
Tung University OFDM
and National
Sun Yat-sen
University
2014 Fudan University, RGB LED — WDM- 4.22 Gb/s 1 cm Off-line Œ42
China OFDM
2014 Scuola Superiore RGBA LED — WDM- 5.6 Gb/s 1.5 cm Off-line Œ43
Sant’Anna, Italy OFDM
2013 Kinki University, RGB LED 160 MHz OOK 477 Mb/s 40 cm Real-time Œ47
Japan (Red LED)
2014 Kinki University, RGB LED R: 185 MHz OOK R: 600 Mb/s 15 cm Real-time Œ48
Japan G: 150 MHz G: 520 Mb/s
B: 180 MHz B: 630 Mb/s
2014 Institute of Semi- P-LED 151 MHz OOK 340 Mb/s 43 cm Real-time Œ51
conductors,
Chinese Academy
of Sciences
2014 Institute of Semi- P-LED 233 MHz OOK 550 Mb/s 60 cm Real-time Œ52
conductors, 500 Mb/s 160 cm
Chinese Academy
of Sciences

P-LED and OOK modulation. To the best of our knowledge,
this is the highest data rate of real-time VLC system utilizing
P-LEDs and OOK modulationŒ52 . For the future VLC applica-
tion market, to realize the real-time high-speed VLC systems
with low-cost and low-complexity is very important. We will
further to work hard on improving the data rate of VLC sys-
tems based on equalization technology, and design real-time
VLC systems with low-cost.
3. High-speed VLC systems
High-speed VLC systems can be divided into two cate-
gories: one is off-line processing VLC systems, the other one
is real-time VLC systems. In many VLC lab experiments, it
is necessary for researchers to study new technology in VLC
using off-line processing. When DMT or OFDM modulation
schemes are used, a real-time oscilloscope is firstly utilized to
record and save the received signal, then perform an off-line
process on the personal computer. This method cannot trans-
mit information and process the received information simulta-
neously. Thus, it is crucial to realize real-time VLC systems.
Langer et al. presented an 84 Mb/s real-time DMT VLC sys-
tem based on the FPGA boardŒ59 . However, it is an interesting

011001-5
J. Semicond. 2016, 37(1)
Figure 6. (Color online) Experimental setup of 500 Mb/s real-time
phosphor-based VLC system at the distance of 1.6 m. TIA: trans-
impedance amplifier; BERT: bit-error-ratio tester; PD: photodiode.
Inset: pre-emphasis circuit and receiver module.
but difficult engineering work to realize hundreds of mega-
hertz or gigabit data rate OFDM or DMT VLC systems by
utilizing complex hardware such as field programmable gate
array (FPGA), digital signal processor (DSP), analog to dig-
ital (AD) and digital to analog (DA) converters. When OOK
modulation is adopted, hardware design becomes easy and ac-
ceptable without expensive FPGA, DSP, AD and DA modules.
Thus, the OOK transmission data can be easily recovered. Then
OOK VLC systems could transmit and receive information at
the same time, that is, real-time VLC systems. For actual appli-
cation systems, high speed real-time OOK VLC systems with
low-cost and low-complexity are more attractive.
3.1. High-speed real-time VLC system based on P-LEDs
From 2011, we mainly focus on implementing high-
speed real-time OOK VLC systems with low-cost and low-
complexity. In 2013, we present a 3-dB bandwidth of 151 MHz
VLC system based on post-equalization technology, which al-
lows 340 Mb/s real-time OOK data transmissionŒ51 . Several
months later, a real-time 550 Mb/s VLC system based on phos-
phorescent white LED and pre-emphasis and post-equalization
technologies, has been demonstratedŒ52 . The 3-dB bandwidth
of the VLC link is extended from 3 to 233 MHz, when the
distance is 0.6 m, the data rate of 550 Mb/s could be realized
based on OOK-NRZ modulation. When the distance is 1.6 m,
500 Mb/s OOK-NRZ data transmission could be achieved. The
500 Mb/s real-time VLC link experiment setup is shown in
Figure 6. Figure 7 shows the measured BER versus the trans-
mission data rate of the 550 Mb/s VLC system at the dis-
tance of 0.6 m. The experiment results show that even the sim-
plest OOK modulation scheme, high-speed VLC system could
be realized. In addition, the analog pre-emphasis and post-
equalization circuits could be designed into a smaller size with
low-cost and low-complexity.
011001-6
Chen Hongda et al.
Figure 7. (Color online) Measured BER versus transmission data rate
of 550 Mb/s VLC system at the distance of 0.6 mŒ52 .
Figure 8. (Color online) EOE system response of VLC system based
on proposed analog modulator (white light, blue light, blue light, blue
light with pre-emphasis, and response of pre-emphasis circuit)Œ60 .
Modulation methods and their hardware design are impor-
tant technologies for the VLC system. How to convert an elec-
tronic signal to an optical signal with low-cost and in an effi-
cient way is crucial to the application system with a VLC sys-
tem. In order to further reduce the complexity and cost of the
VLC link, high-speed analog modulators for the VLC link are
researched and investigated. In Reference [60], we proposed an
analog modulator based on an n-channel enhancement-mode
MOSFET device combined with pre-emphasis circuit. Figure
8 shows the EOE system response of the VLC system based
on the proposed analog modulator. With the proposed ana-
log modulator, the 3-dB bandwidth of the VLC link was en-
hanced from 3 to 175 MHz with the blue filter, which allows a
460 Mb/s OOK-NRZ modulation scheme, as Figure 9 shows.
We also designed an analog modulator based on a self-
designed bias-tee circuit combined with the pre-emphasis cir-
cuit. In this experiment, OOK, M-QAM and 16QAM-OFDM
modulation schemes are investigated, at the same time, the
VLC link does not utilize a blue filter. Then 330 Mb/s NRZ-
OOK and 682 Mb/s 16QAM-OFDM data transmission have
been realizedŒ57; 58 . Figure 10 shows the experimental setup
of our 682 Mb/s VLC system based on 16QAM-OFDM modu-
lation scheme without utilizing a blue filter. The transmission
J. Semicond. 2016, 37(1)
Figure 9. (Color online) Measured BER versus transmission data rate
(blue light without and with pre-emphasis circuit). BER below 10 10
is truncated to this threshold. Inset: Eye diagram at 100, 200, 300 and
460 Mb/sŒ60 .
distance can be changed from 1 to 2.2 m. The modulation cir-
cuit is a self-designed bias-T circuit. Both the transmitter and
receiver are integrated with a compact size. Figure 11 shows the
measured BER versus the data rate of the 682 Mb/s 16QAM-
OFDM VLC system without a blue filter. The data rate of
68 Mb/s could be achieved within the BER of the forward er-
ror correction (FEC) limit 3.8  10 3 . The experiment results
show that, even without the blue filter, a high-speed OOK VLC
link also could be implemented based on simple modulators
with pre-emphasis and post-equalization technology. Analog
equalizers could be applied to both OOK and OFDM modula-
tion schemes.
3.2. Bidirectional 100 Mb/s VLC local area network
(VLAN) system
On the basis of the above experiment investigation, we
designed a bidirectional 100 Mb/s VLC local area network
(VLAN) system, also named the 100 Mb/s Li-Fi system, just
as Figure 12 shows. The VLAN system is a typical appli-
cation scenario for VLC technology. We successfully imple-
ment the 100 Mb/s VLAN or Li-Fi system with low-cost and
low-complexity in our lab. The Li-Fi system adopts a 1 W
phosphor-based white LED and OOK modulation scheme. The
link distance is 1.9 m with an illumination level of 800
lux. Both the uplink and downlink are white light channel.
At the receiver, the blue filter is not utilized. In fact, we in-
tegrate the VLC receiver, transmitter and Ethernet chips into
a small size VLAN transceiver, which is much more applica-
ble with low-cost and low-complexity. In order to test the net-
work rate of the VLAN system, the client sent request informa-
tion and downloaded large files from the server. In Figure 13,
we show the network rate experiment results. The maximum
downlink net rate of the VLAN system is 78 Mb/s. In fact, the
VLAN transceivers have the ability for higher speed, more than
90 Mb/s in the experiment.
Traditionally, the 3-dB bandwidth of the white light chan-
nel VLC link based on phosphorescent white LED is only
several megahertz, then the researchers try to enhance the
bandwidth efficiency to improve the data throughout. In this
011001-7
Chen Hongda et al.
way, higher order and advanced modulation schemes such as
OFDM are utilized. However, if we want to implement ad-
vanced modulation schemes, we have to utilized FPGA or DSP
chips and boards, which will increase the complexity and cost
of the VLC system. By experiment research, we propose a new
solution to implement a 100 Mb/s VLAN system with low-cost
and low-complexity. For our 100 Mb/s Li-Fi system, the cost
is only about several hundred Chinese Yuan. We believe that
this advantage is what will promote VLC technology into the
market.
4. Prospects in VLC technology
In recent years, VLC research has achieved rapid progress.
However, there are still numerous challenges which need to be
addressed. The most difficult challenge is to understand where
VLC fits in the future wireless landscape. At present, there is
still no clear consensus as to how and where VLC might best be
used with the highly heterogeneous wireless communications
systems of the futureŒ24 . In addition, providing an efficient up-
link scheme for VLC has been a problem, because VLC by
nature is a broadcast technology with distributed sources. Fur-
thermore, the transmission distance is limited due to the sharp
decrease in optical power as the distance increases. Therefore,
it is particularly urgent for VLC researchers to build a land-
scape for developing VLC technology in the future. VLC re-
searchers also have to work hard on designing transmitter and
receiver modules or chips with good performance and low-
cost, improving the transmission distance to acceptable ap-
plication, optimizing equalizers as well as designing OFDM
modulation scheme hardware or chips.
Though there are still many challenges ahead, we believe
that VLC as a booming technology could have a place where
it can be utilized and developed. The VLC market is driven
by the prolific LED lighting market, spectral and drawbacks
of RF communications. VLC is particularly suited for last mile
connectivity with high speed and reused bandwidth. VLC tech-
nology shows bright future prospects in the future 4G or 5G
wireless access networks due to its inherent advantages. The
technology could combine the communication and illumina-
tion together, which could be utilized in applications such as
VLAN or Li-Fi, security conference, intelligent lighting, in-
door localization, power line communication (PLC) and so on.
More and more research institutions including companies are
joined to develop the VLC technology. We believe that real-
time, low-cost and low-complexity VLC systems is the goal of
the market, which will be the research hot spot of VLC tech-
nology. We look forward to trying our best to contribute to the
industrialization of VLC technology in the future.
5. Conclusion
In this paper, we review some of the significant recent ad-
vances in VLC. We demonstrate our recent research of the 500
Mb/s real-time OOK VLC system based on phosphor-based
LED at the distance of 1.6 m. We also present a bidirectional
100 Mb/s VLAN or Li-Fi system based on OOK modulation
without a blue filter. The transmission distance is 1.9 m with
an illumination level of 800 lux, both the uplink and down-
link are a white light channel without utilizing a blue filter. The
J. Semicond. 2016, 37(1) Chen Hongda et al.

Figure 10. (Color online) Experimental setup of our 682 Mb/s VLC system based on 16QAM-OFDM modulation scheme without utilizing blue
filterŒ58 .

Figure 11. (Color online) Measured BER versus data rate of 682 Mb/s
16QAM-OFDM VLC system without blue filterŒ58 .
Figure 13. (Color online) Network rate test results.

VLC systems we proposed are good solutions for high-speed

VLC application systems with low-cost and low-complexity.
As VLC technology develops, we believe that VLC technol-
ogy will be utilized in the future wireless communication sys-
tems. VLC technology shows a bright future due to its inherent
advantages and the ever increasing popularity of white LEDs.

Acknowledgments
Authors would like to express special thanks to Professor
Liu Jian for contributions on improving the paper. We also ac-
knowledge the support and help in the experiment from Huang
Beiju, Zhang Xu, Zhang Zan, Guo Junqing, Tang Jun, Lu Lin
and Lu Huimin et al..

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