Visible light communication control in a platoon vehicle environment

Overview & Synopsis

Using VLC for such different applications requires a smooth integration of the technology into the protocol stack. The first question is how an application module can be aware that a VLC link is available, how it can discover the neighbors, and how it can find the intended communication peer. In WLANs, for instance, the MAC layer beaconing and the IPv6 neighbor discovery protocol (NDP) play critical roles in neighbor/route discovery at both the MAC and network layers, allowing data transmission to the intended neighbor. Unfortunately, to our knowledge, there is no work has been done on neighbor discovery for VLC networks, and the WLAN/IPv6 protocols cannot be plugged into VLC, mainly because of the unique uni-directional and narrow FOV characteristics. More specifically, to make VLC operational in natural vehicular environments, it is necessary to design a Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol that ensures continuous V2V information exchange with the presence of the challenging issues coming from the mobility dynamics, multi-user interference, and environmental noise.