Visible-light communication system enabling 73 Mb/s data streaming

The hOME Gigabit Access (OMEGA) home-area-network project aims at bridging the gap between home and access network and providing Gb/s connectivity to users. The project considers a combination of various technologies such as radio-frequency and wireless optical links operating at infrared and visible wavelengths. When combined with power-line communications (PLC), this enables a home backbone that meets the project's "without new wires" vision. A technology-independent MAC layer will control this network and provide services as well as connectivity to any number of devices the user wishes to connect to in any room of a house/apartment. In order to make this vision come true, substantial progress had to be achieved in the fields of optical wireless physical layer development and data-link-layer protocol design. This paper reports an experimental demonstration of an indoor visible-light wireless link including a MAC layer protocol adapted to optical wireless communications systems. The system operates at 84 Mb/s broadcast and was successfully used to transmit three high-definition video streams.