A Review of Indoor Channel Modeling Techniques for Visible Light Communications

Visible light communications (VLC) is a technology that uses the unregulated electromagnetic spectrum band between 380 and 780nm which offers an enormous potential of high speed communications for short distances, regardless of radio interference. VLC technology has many useful applications, including smart lighting, high speed data link, communication in hazardous environments, vehicular communications, underwater communications, location based services, etc. Although there is a growing interest on VLC applications, there is still a lack of proper VLC channel models. In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey of modeling techniques for visible light communications with a focus on indoor wireless optical channels. For a better understanding, we select some relevant channel models and compare their characteristics from different aspects.