Impact of Receiver FOV and Orientation on Dense Optical Networks

As the technical feasibility of indoor Optical Wireless Communications becomes established, a variety of new system challenges emerge in the quest for higher and denser data rates when employing lighting, or luminaires, for VLC. Supporting device mobility is one such challenge wherein a mobile device equipped with an optical receiver will transit a field of optical access points (APs) and will require one or more handovers between APs. Of course, the nature of the handovers is dependent on the behavior of the user and the design constraints for the placement of the luminaires/APs within the indoor space. In this paper we focus on modeling a parameterized system for studying the handover performance for mobile users with different receiver characteristics including field of view (FOV) and orientation with respect to overhead APs. Results indicate the utility of our system models for characterizing handover performance for a reference indoor space and AP placement. We also describe several handover strategies providing performance gains in terms of reducing the number and frequency of handovers for a user in the system. Lastly, we show the linkage between a wide FOV and a narrow FOV in terms of optimizing system performance. In the future we expect to drive simulations based on representative mobility behavior derived from empirical models of user behavior in an indoor space.