On the Coverage Footprint for High-Capacity VLC Through Angle Diversity Receivers

Angle diversity receivers (ADRs), in which multiple photodiodes are deployed following an angular diversity arrangement, have been proposed for visible light communications (VLC) to minimize the intercell interference, avoid blockage or uncorrelate the received signals. In this sense, transmission schemes such as select best combining (SBC), equal gain combining (EGC), and maximum ratio combining (MRC) can be implemented based on the concept of ADR. However, fixed coverage footprint is typically assumed for these schemes. Our focus in this work is to analyze how the coverage footprint can be enhanced by leveraging the angular diversity at receivers, thereby ensuring high-capacity in VLC scenarios, even in the presence of intercell interference. Specifically, theoretical closed-form expressions of the probability distribution function (PDF) and cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the coverage footprint are derived for single and multiple cell scenarios. Simulation results show that the theoretical derivations are accurate and that, subject to a minimum achievable rate, the SBC schemes achieves a coverage footprint enhancement up to 87% in comparison with the traditional fixed footprint approach.