A Comprehensive Open-Source Simulation Framework for LiFi Communication

Abstract

Light Fidelity (LiFi) is a new candidate for wireless networking that utilizes the visible light spectrum and exploits the existing lighting infrastructure in the form of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). It provides point-to-point and point-to-multipoint communication on a bidirectional channel at very high data rates. However, the LiFi has small coverage, and its optical gain is closely related to the receiver’s directionality vis-à-vis the transmitter, therefore it can experience frequent service outages. To provide reliable coverage, the LiFi is integrated with other networking technologies such as wireless fidelity (WiFi) thus forming a hybrid system. The hybrid LiFi/WiFi system faces many challenges including but not limited to seamless integration with the WiFi, support for mobility, handover management, resource sharing, and load balancing. The existing literature has addressed one or the other aspect of the issues facing LiFi systems. There are limited free source tools available to holistically address these challenges in a scalable manner. To this end, we have developed an open-source simulation framework based on the network simulator 3 (ns-3), which realizes critical aspects of the LiFi wireless network. Our developed ns-3 LiFi framework provides a fully functional AP equipped with the physical layer and medium access control (MAC), a mobility model for the user device, and integration between LiFi and WiFi with a handover facility. Simulation results are produced to demonstrate the mobility and handover capabilities, and the performance gains from the LiFi-WiFi hybrid system in terms of packet delay, throughput, packet drop ratio (PDR), and fairness between users. The source code of the framework is made available for the use of the research community.

MOHAN: Multi-Objective Handover for hybrid (LiFi-WiFi) Application-based Networks

“…The problems such as load balancing, mobility management, light path blockage, and interference management in HLWNets are mainly connected with the problem of handover management. Some recent studies have proposed the handover mechanisms considering either of the problems in HLWNets in [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39]. In [31], the authors have presented a method for addressing mobility and LoS challenges faced by users in HLWNets.…”

“…The FL-based approach had designed to reduce the computational complexity further. The Handover Mechanism for Hybrid WiFi-LiFi (HMHWF) had recently proposed in [39]. They have designed the HLWNets framework in network simulator 3 (NS3) with the mechanism of the handover.…”

“…-The handover management methods in [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] focused on handover decisionmaking by considering either parameter like UE mobility, shadowing effects, and load management only. Such systems have failed to detect the sort of handover required during decision-making, resulting in increased computing complexity and frequent handovers.…”

Research on handover strategy of heterogeneous networks based on user service quality

“…However, fatal problems in VLC are fragility of communication links and limitation of coverage area. Good functional complementarity is achieved by combining VLC and WiFi 3–5 . The vertical handover (VHO) problem has become the main content.…”

Editorial to the Special Issue on “Visible Light Communications, Networking, and Sensing”

“…The results experimentally validated the capabilities of the method, which consistently obtained the lowest EVM when deployed in a real experimental setup, using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and spectrally efficient frequency division multiplexing with a varying bandwidth. S. Ullah et al [9], in the paper on "A Comprehensive Open-Source Simulation Framework for LiFi Communication", provides an open source for fully functional access points equipped with the physical layer and medium access control, a mobility model for the user device, and integration between LiFi and WiFi, with handover capabilities.…”