Coverage-bounding wireless communication with visible light 1

Poster: Securing IoT through coverage-bounding wireless communication with visible light

Qing Wang1, Jona Beysens2, Dave Singelée2, and Sofie Pollin2

1 TU Delft, the Netherlands2 KU Leuven, Belgium

Coverage-bounding wireless communication with visible light 2Coverage-bounding wireless communication with visible light 2

Trend in Wireless Communications

3 kHz 300 kHz 30 MHz 300 MHz 6 GHz 30 GHz 300 GHz

1G

2G3G

4G5G ...

30 GHz 300 GHz

Antenna design is very complex

Signal processing is complex

Devices are expensive

Much more energy consumptions

5G

Coverage-bounding wireless communication with visible light 3Coverage-bounding wireless communication with visible light 3

Trend in Wireless Communications

3 kHz 300 kHz 30 MHz 300 MHz 6 GHz 30 GHz 300 GHz

1G

2G3G

4G5G ...

30 GHz 300 GHz

Antenna design is very complex

Signal processing is complex

Devices are expensive

Much more energy consumptions

5G

New frequency band: larger bandwidth +

simpler design?

Coverage-bounding wireless communication with visible light 4

Visible Light Communication

Advantages compared to RF:

Much larger bandwidth

Signal processing is easier

Energy efficient

Devices are cheaper

Secure: light can be bounded by walls

Coverage-bounding wireless communication with visible light 5

A step further: Coverage-bounding wireless communication with visible light

HODOR: coverage-bounding and visual wireless communication

§ Coverage-bounding: the wireless communication range is controlled accurately in 3-dimensions

§ Visual: the communication coverage and process are visible to user à an important and user-friendly side-channel for securing IoT

Coverage-bounding wireless communication with visible light 6

Realization methods

Physical methods

Visible light is directional

Visible light can be blocked easily

Software-defined methods

Dynamically change the the parameter settings of TXs, receivers, and program the surroundings.

Coverage-bounding wireless communication with visible light 7

Simulation results

Setup: a grid of 4 transmitters in an area of 3 m X 3 mResult: coverage-bounding by using blockagesResult: coverage-bounding by leveraging interference from neighboring transmitters

Coverage-bounding wireless communication with visible light 8

Simulation results

Setup: a grid of 4 transmitters in an area of 3 m X 3 mResult: coverage-bounding by using blockagesResult: coverage-bounding by leveraging interference from neighboring transmitters

Coverage-bounding wireless communication with visible light 9

Experimental result

Based on our DenseVLC testbed [1,2]: TX8 (desired), TX12 and TX32 (interfering transmitters)Result: can bound the communication range as desired

[1] A Cell-free Networking System with Visible Light. IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, 2020.[2] DenseVLC: A Cell-Free Massive MIMO System with Distributed LEDs. ACM CoNEXT, 2018.

Coverage-bounding wireless communication with visible light 10

Conclusion

Proposed the concept of coverage-bounding wireless communication

Proposed two categories of preliminary methods

Evaluated with simulation and experiments

Coverage-bounding wireless communication with visible light 11Passive Visible Light Networks: Taxonomy and Opportunities 11

END