Leveraging on the Synergy between Visible Light Communication (VLC) and Radio Frequency (RF) to Enhance Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS)

Abstract

Vehicular communication is a core technology of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication still needs to develop resilience, such that communication is safe and efficient, in time-critical applications. The radio-based systems, such as cellular V2X (C-V2X) and Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC), which are used classically for vehicular communication suffer from performance degradation in traffic scenarios where traffic is dense. In recent years, Line of Sight (LoS) technologies such as Visible Light Communication (VLC) are considered complementary technology to Radio Frequency (RF). VLC utilizes the light-emitting diodes (LEDs) headlamps and tail lights that are standard on modern vehicles to exchange information with the predecessor and subsequent vehicle. This work-in-progress paper highlights the need to combine RF and LoS technologies to improve the stability and reliability of V2V communication. Therefore, we discuss the different LoS and RF technologies, and we present the combinations that can be used for communication. Finally, we propose a hybrid strategy that combines the best properties of individual technologies.