Integration of Visible Light and Backscatter Communications for Ambient Internet of Things

Abstract

Ambient backscatter communication (AmBC) is a key enabler for green Internet of Things (IoT) employing ambient radio frequency (RF) signals for low-power communication. The AmBC devices discussed in the literature so far harvest light to power their microcontrollers for controlling RF modulation and reflection circuits. The ubiquitous presence of configurable lightemitting diodes (LEDs) based luminaires can also leverage such control functionalities by involving visible light communication (VLC). In this paper, we propose a visible light-enabled AmBC system that integrates VLC and AmBC for future ambient power-enabled IoT. We design LiBD, a backscatter device (BD) that uses visible light signals for both modulation control and energy supply. We demonstrate the real-time end-to-end data transmission with a proof of concept experiment. Evaluation results show that the LiBD supports multiple sub-6 GHz RF bands and can receive modulated light at frequencies up to 250 kHz. The investigations verify the feasibility of integrating the VLC and AmBC for future green IoT systems.