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Publication

A Symbiotic 6G Enabler: Combining Laser based Visible Light Communication with Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces

Matthias Rüb; Annika Tjabben; Yorman Munoz; Jens Grüber; Pascal Ahr; Jan Herbst; Christoph Lipps
In: Workshop on Next Generation Networks and Applications. Workshop on Next Generation Networks and Applications (NGNA-20220), November 24-25, Kaiserslautern, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany, 11/2022.

Abstract

In the development of Sixth Generation (6G) wireless systems, Visible Light Communication (VLC) is being discussed as a promising, cost-efficient approach to address the growing demands for security in high-speed data transmission. Current LED-based solutions have a very short range of a few meters which limits their applicability. On the other hand, laser-diode-based systems provide more range but still suffer from the necessity of a Line of Sight (LOS) path. Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) tackle those issues by offering a physical layer approach to satisfy the high-security demand, enhancing the range of inherently divergent laser-diode systems and creating a virtual LOS path. Since the complexity of those systems massively influences the costs, a trade-off between cost, range and security enhancements must be made. Therefore ray-optical indoor simulations are performed to give an insight into the correlation between the RIS element number and range enhancement. In addition, the potential of RIS in VLC regarding Physical Layer Security (PhySec) is briefly highlighted.