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ACCEPTED FROM OPEN CALL
TOWARD PRACTICAL INTEGRATION OF
DUAL-USE VLC WITHIN 5G NETWORKS
M. B. RAHAIM AND T. D. C. LITTLE
ABSTRACT
Visible light communication (VLC), a form
of indoor optical wireless access, has the poten-
tial to be an integral part of 5G networks due to
the massive available spectrum in the visible
light band. VLC has desirable high bandwidth
density (b/s/m2) stemming from the directionality
of optical signals, and can exist as part of
installed infrastructure in LED-based luminaires.
In spite of these benefits, it is best paired with
complementary RF technologies to overcome
limitations of line of sight, glare in optical uplink,
and use cases requiring darkness. The combina-
tion of VLC and RF shows promise to overcome
limitations of each medium if successfully paired.
In this article we describe motivating factors for
VLC usage in environments with a high density
of user devices, present models for VLC integra-
tion with RF technologies, define system compo-
nents required for practical deployment, and
evaluate scenarios where VLC integration is
most beneficial. We show that by selecting
appropriate operating conditions for each of the
RF and VLC solutions, we can realize substan-
tial improvement in the resulting heterogeneous
network design.
INTRODUCTION
Wireless network connectivity has become an
essential component of everyday life. In the cur-
rent generation of smart systems, smart devices,
and ubiquitous computing, the demand for
increased wireless capacity runs unabated. This
demand stems from a multifaceted growth in
sophistication, data storage, and the sheer num-
ber of devices accessing wireless networks along
with a corresponding growth in the number and
complexity of novel applications (e.g. social net-
working, video-on-demand, and cloud based ser-
vices) [1]. The wireless communications industry
has long been challenged to keep up with grow-
ing demand while the market continually pushes
the limits of network capacity via innovative
devices and applications that utilize network
connectivity to improve everyday life. Forecasts
for next generation wireless communication sys-
The authors are with tems, or 5G networks, predict a continuation
Boston University. of this growth with an expected 1000x increase in
IEEE Wireless Communications August 2015 1536-1284/15/$25.00 2015 IEEE
data traffic [2]. In order to meet these demands,
5G networks are expected to incorporate
more/smaller cells, additional spectrum, energy
efficient communication, mobile convergence,
heterogeneous network (HetNet) integration,
and cognition at both the device and network
level.
Visible light communication (VLC) has the
potential to be an integral part of 5G networks
due to the massive available spectrum in the visi-
ble light band, high bandwidth density (b/s/m2)
stemming from the directionality of optical sig-
nals, and broad adoption of LED-based devices
for use in the lighting infrastructure [3]. Howev-
er, the following constraints limit marketability
of VLC-only systems:
Susceptibility to blocking due to misalignment
or path obstructions.
A potentially intrusive uplink that produces
glare.
High power consumption from mobile devices
where signal energy is not utilized for lighting.
Scarce adoption due to market dominance of
RF based devices.
The necessary cooperation between the light-
ing industry and the communications industry.
Considering the positive traits along with
these constraints, VLC is best suited as a supple-
mental medium within HetNets. Specifically, we
consider dual-use VLC hotspots, APs that pro-
vide both lighting and wireless communications
via the optical channel that are distributed with-
in the lighting infrastructure and used to offload
downlink traffic from RF small cells (RFSCs) [4].
In this article we detail motivating factors for
VLC usage in environments with a high density
of user devices (UDs), present models for VLC
integration, define system components required
for practical deployment, and evaluate scenarios
where VLC integration is most beneficial.
VLC INTEGRATION
Practicality and marketability of dual-use VLC
systems rely on a connection between two dis-
joint industries: the broadband wireless commu-
nications industry and the commercial lighting
industry. In order for practical dual-use VLC
devices to be marketable, they must provide high
quality lighting and reliable data communication.
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Dual-use VLC luminaires
Macrocell coverage within a city
can offer the wireless
communication benefits
of VLC while utilizing
the available network
connectivity of the
lighting infrastructure
and combining the
power consumption
for both VLC and
illumination.
RF small cell coverage in an apartment complex
Figure 1. Multi-tier HetNet implementing ISP deployed macrocells with planned distribution, locally
deployed RF small cells (e.g., WiFi or femtocell) with ad-hoc distribution, and locally deployed VLC
small cells with planned distribution.
In addition, broad scale adoption requires avail-
ability of VLC enabled luminaires and incorpo-
ration of a VLC network interface within next
generation UDs. Neither VLC luminaires nor
VLC enabled UDs will find success on their
own. Therefore, an economic benefit to both
industries must exist if such a union is to come
to fruition.
New spectrum allocation has improved link
capacity (b/s) and techniques that increase sig-
nal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and/or signal-to-inter-
ference ratio (SIR) have improved spectral
efficiency (b/s/Hz). However, the most signifi-
cant gains have come by means of bringing
access points (APs) closer to the UD in order to
reduce cell size [5]. This increases aggregate
wireless capacity by improving bandwidth density
or area spectral efficiency (b/s/Hz/m 2 ). In 4G
networks, traffic offloading to RFSCs (e.g. wire-
less local area networks (WLANs) and femto-
cells) has become an established technique and
has driven mobile convergence such that UDs
can utilize various access technologies [6]. As the
number of UDs increases, cell density continues
toward hyper-dense networks [7]. A typical fami-
ly may have had a single wireless device a decade
ago. However, household WLANs now service
multiple smart phones, tablets, and laptops as
well as networked appliances within the Internet
of Things (IoT) [8]. Offices and commercial
environments must also accommodate more
UDs assuming every employee/patron requires
wireless access and the infrastructure incorpo-
rates wireless sensors and networked devices to
meet demands of the industrial Internet [9]. As
per-cell coverage area decreases beyond that of
98
Bandwidth density
VLC
cells
RF small
cells
Macrocells
Mobility
VLC cell coverage within an apartment
current RFSCs, infrastructural constraints limit
the use of omnidirectional RF. Directional VLC
allows the infrastructure and AP to be located
away from the UD while generating coverage
area small enough to realize hyper-dense cells.
In the broad view of 5G, we envision multi-tier
HetNets (Fig. 1) where UDs are intelligently dis-
tributed among cells of various coverage areas
and access technologies, including highly local-
ized directional cells implementing VLC. When
provisioning VLC cells, the cost relating to infra-
structure and energy use should not outweigh
the benefits of the additional wireless capacity.
Luckily, the energy efficiency and tunable nature
of LEDs have recently driven the lighting indus-
try to broadly adopt network controlled LED-
based luminaires. Therefore, dual-use VLC
luminaires can offer the wireless communication
benefits of VLC while utilizing the available net-
work connectivity of the lighting infrastructure
and combining the power consumption for both
VLC and illumination. In this way, VLC signal
energy that does not directly affect the commu-
nication link is still effectively utilized in meeting
illumination requirements. Hence, integration
within both HetNets and the lighting infra-
structure is key to the future success of VLC.
INTEGRATION WITHIN MULTI-TIER HETNETS
Figure 2 shows the envisioned RF/VLC HetNet,
consisting of one or more VLC APs, various
UDs, a central RF AP, a router, and a gateway
to external networks. UDs are ideally assigned
to the AP with minimum footprint in order to
mitigate interference and maximize aggregate
wireless throughput in static scenarios. However,
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there is typically a tradeoff between bandwidth
density and coverage area or mobility. As with
traffic offloading to RFSCs, the objective is to
increase aggregate throughput via smaller cells
while the larger cell provides better coverage
and reliability. UDs with unreliable VLC signals
due to either shadowing or movement between
cells are better suited for the RFSC. High data
rate traffic destined for UDs with a reliable VLC
link can be offloaded to the highly localized
VLC cells, removing congestion from the RFSC
and nearby cells using the same RF band. There
are conceptual similarities when comparing this
integration with offloading from macrocells to
RFSCs; however, analysis and implementation of
VLC as a lower tier can be differentiated in the
following ways.
Inter-Tier Interference: Femtocells and
WLANs have similar coverage area; however,
femtocells use licensed spectrum and coordinat-
ed multiple access techniques while WiFi
WLANs use unlicensed spectrum and contention
based techniques. Considering femtocells that
operate in the same band as the broad coverage
macrocells, interference occurs between tiers.
Since RF and VLC are non-interfering, the
RFSC/VLC analysis is closer to that of WLANs
within macrocells where intra-tier interference is
the primary concern.
Intra-Tier Interference: In the macrocell tier,
APs are owned and controlled by a global entity
(i.e. service provider). Therefore, layout and
power allocation can be provisioned in order to
minimize intra-tier interference. RFSCs are pur-
chased by local entities (i.e. home/business own-
ers) and deployed in an ad-hoc manner such that
interference between RFSCs is not planned and
is mitigated via dynamic interference manage-
ment. The novelty of VLC is that AP layout is
controlled by the local entity and interference
between VLC systems controlled by neighboring
entities is negligible. In this way, interference
between VLC cells can be evaluated in the pro-
visioning process at the local level and dynamic
interference management can be coordinated
within the local system. This has similarities with
high density WLAN deployments in universities
and businesses where layout and connectivity are
part of the building infrastructure design.
Dynamic Link Characteristics: Given dynam-
ic signal conditions and UD mobility, the ideal
link selection for a given UD in a multi-tier sys-
tem depends on signal quality and channel varia-
tions. In the selection between macrocell and
RFSC, UDs traveling at high speed (e.g. in a
moving vehicle) experience rapid variation in
RFSC channel quality and, accordingly, are bet-
ter suited for connection to the macrocell. On
the smaller scale of VLC systems, walking
through a room creates similar channel quality
variations. In addition, the directionality of VLC
and susceptibility to blocking lead to rapid varia-
tions due to misalignment, obstruction, and UD
rotation. Link selection must incorporate these
variations when determining suitability of the
VLC link.
Dynamic Cell Characteristics: In practical
scenarios, the number of UDs in a cell and the
rate requirements of a UD are dynamic vari-
ables. Given a probability distribution of aggre-
IEEE Wireless Communications August 2015
Access network
VLC APs
IP
network
RF AP
Router
Figure 2. HetNet incorporating VLC hotspots and an overshadowing RF AP.
gate capacity requirements for a macrocell,
resources are provisioned such that the likeli-
hood of requirements exceeding cell capacity is
low. Given the large number of UDs within a
macrocell, worst case scenarios are unlikely and
cell capacity is not typically provisioned to han-
dle scenarios where all UDs in the cell simulta-
neously have high rate requirements. The smaller
number of UDs per VLC AP implies a more dis-
cretized aggregate traffic distribution, and it is
likely that all UDs in the cell operate at high
throughput; therefore, worst-case scenarios
should be accommodated.
Dynamic System Characteristics: Cellular
networks implement dynamic resource allocation
to accommodate variations in network traffic
distribution between daytime and nighttime
hours. Provisioning of VLC resources for indoor
RF/VLC HetNets should have similar flexibility
to accommodate variations in distribution of
UDs in environments such as conference rooms
and lecture halls. However, the distribution in
these scenarios is likely to be more random than
the daily patterns observed on the citywide scale
of higher tiers in the network.
INTEGRATION WITHIN THE
LIGHTING INFRASTRUCTURE
While the lighting and communications indus-
tries are relatively disjoint, the shared infra-
structure concept is not completely novel. As the
small cell concept has developed, street lighting
has attracted the attention of wireless service
providers as a viable option for deployment of
RFSCs. Given that intelligent street lights have
the available infrastructure and network connec-
tivity, deploying RFSCs on light poles through-
out a city comes at a lower cost to wireless
service providers than deployment of an entirely
new infrastructure. Lighting companies benefit
from the ability to market the novel street lights
with the added service of wireless connectivity in
order to further motivate the adoption of energy
efficient LED-based street lights and provide a
service that separates their products from those
of their competitors [10].
While lighting has traditionally been passive,
novel LED-based luminaires are moving in the
direction of digitally controlled devices with the
functionality for individual control of brightness
and color content. In order to provide controlla-
bility, a communication infrastructure connects
the luminaires to a controller. In many cases,
this infrastructure connects to the Internet in
order to allow remote control of the lighting
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Broad adoption of VLC infrastructure via external services or UDs.
While low data rate wireless mesh networks or
depends on the develop- proprietary wired communication protocols are
often used to connect luminaires, higher rate
ment of design parame- connectivity via power line communication
ters and protocols that (PLC) or Ethernet are options that the industry
is beginning to explore. Power over Ethernet
integrate VLC into the (PoE) is a strong candidate for DC powered
network stack and light- LED luminaires because of the plug-and-play
potential for simplified installation, and it is fea-
ing infrastructure. The sible that the lighting industry will move in this
direction. Such an infrastructure would benefit
system should also both industries: the lighting industry via simplifi-
dynamically determine cation of the installation process, and the com-
munications industry via broad scale distributed
the appropriate MCS in network access within indoor environments.
order to maintain light- These incentives could lead to further collabora-
tion with the objective of adding wireless ser-
ing quality and maxi- vices, VLC in particular, to the indoor lighting
infrastructure in a manner similar to that of
mize VLC data benefits. RFSC/street light integration.
SYSTEM COMPONENTS
There has been a good amount of research in
the design of point-to-point VLC links. Howev-
er, broad adoption of VLC depends on the
development of design parameters and protocols
that integrate VLC into the network stack and
lighting infrastructure. The system should also
dynamically determine the appropriate modula-
tion and coding scheme (MCS) in order to main-
tain lighting quality and maximize VLC data
benefits.
MODULATION AND CODING SCHEMES
The PHY layer has received the majority of
research interest within the VLC community,
and many novel MCSs have evolved to best meet
the requirements of dual-use VLC. The commu-
nity has analyzed pulsed schemes, OFDM
schemes, wavelength or color modulation
schemes, and spatial techniques such as optical
MIMO and SM [3, 11]. Each scheme has indi-
vidual benefits relating to throughput, resource
requirements, dimming control, and peak-to-
average power ratio. A practical VLC system
should implement dynamic adaptation for both
rate and MCS in order to meet the performance
metrics. As with WiFi standards, VLC standard-
ization should incorporate a MCS set that covers
the various scenarios in which VLC will be
required to operate. Standardization efforts,
including IEEE 802.15.7 [11], have taken place
in recent years. However, metrics must be
defined in order to dynamically determine which
MCS should be utilized in various operating
conditions relating to lighting requirements,
channel quality, and resources allocated by high-
er layers to accommodate interference and sys-
tem dynamics. This can imply adjustments in
modulation scheme, modulation order, or the
number of spatial streams.
PHYSICAL NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE
In the development of practical VLC systems,
provisioning should be done in a way that satis-
fies lighting constraints and maximizes the prob-
ability of meeting UD rate requirements. Design
decisions typically have tradeoffs that affect
100
lighting quality and performance of the commu-
nication network. When provisioning the system,
luminaire emission pattern, receiver acceptance
pattern, and VLC AP layout will affect system
performance. Luminaires with wide emission
patterns provide better coverage and a more
uniform lighting distribution. However, this
implies more overlap and larger interference
regions. In order to mitigate interference,
resources can be divided among neighboring
VLC APs at the cost of per-cell capacity. Receiv-
er field of view (FOV) has similar design trade-
offs. While wide FOV receivers have a higher
probability of maintaining a line of sight (LOS)
signal path, they also increase the probability of
LOS interference paths. Conversely, narrow
FOV receivers have low probability of a LOS
interference path but a higher probability that
no LOS signal path will exist. In order to opti-
mize SIR, system provisioning should maximize
the probability of a receiver operating with a
LOS signal path and interference from multipath
channels only. Imaging receiver architectures
attempt to maximize this probability, but there
are also tradeoffs regarding device complexity
and cost.
The layout and number of APs will also affect
system performance. While additional lumi-
naires/VLC APs provide additional wireless
capacity and offer a higher probability of observ-
ing a LOS path, there are up-front and opera-
tional costs to be considered for every added
device. In addition to the per-luminaire cost,
decisions relating to the access network within
the RF/VLC HetNet will affect the up-front cost
of system installation. While conventional light-
ing networks incorporate mesh topologies, the
use of PLC would utilize a bus topology and Eth-
ernet or PoE connectivity implies a star or tree
topology. Although the star or tree topologies
increase installation costs due to the higher price
of Ethernet cabling and the larger amount of
cable required in the connection, the plug-and-
play simplicity has potential to reduce the labor
cost relating to installation. The access network
can also have an impact as a system bottleneck,
specifically in scenarios such as the mesh, bus, or
tree topologies, where individual links carry net-
work traffic to multiple VLC APs. As with the
analysis of cellular networks, the access network
does not need to operate under the requirement
that all VLC APs will operate at full capacity
simultaneously. Rather, probabilistic analysis can
determine the access network requirements that
guarantee the set of VLC APs can service the
requirements of UDs with high probability.
LINK AND NETWORK LAYER PROTOCOLS
Beyond provisioning of the infrastructure, the
system must mitigate the VLC uplink constraints
and account for dynamic variations in UD loca-
tion and traffic requirements. In a system con-
sisting of three nodes, the RF AP, a VLC hotspot,
and a UD, the logical topologies can be defined
as shown in Fig. 3 and described as follows.
Symmetric: VLC is used for downlink and
uplink between the hotspot and UD. This
requires additional VLC hardware at the
hotspots/UDs and also suffers from the intrusive
uplink and UD VLC power consumption con-
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straints. In this way, the RFSC and VLC cell are
non-interfering.
Asymmetric Non-Interfering: VLC downlink
and a non-VLC uplink from UD to hotspot. The
uplink is implemented with a medium that does
not interfere with the RF cell (e.g. infrared) or
resources reallocated from the RFSC to the
VLC cell. VLC uplink constraints are mitigated
and the RFSC and VLC cell are non-interfering.
However, additional hardware is required and
the capacity of the RFSC decreases if unused
resources are reserved by the VLC cell.
Asymmetric with Interference: VLC downlink
and an uplink that utilizes the same access tech-
nology and resources as the RFSC. The uplink
must contend for the RF channel in the case of a
WiFi AP. The RF channel is not reserved during
the VLC transmission, which allows it to be uti-
lized for other links. However, this also implies
that the uplink channel cannot guarantee a
response within a defined timeframe. In the case
of an interfering uplink, the RF link between UD
and RF AP can potentially be used for uplink
traffic [12]. This adds complexity to the PHY
layer Acknowledgment and handshaking. In the
simplest case, the VLC link can be implemented
as a broadcast downlink such that the higher lay-
ers of the stack handle Acknowledgments. Alter-
natively, PHY layer control commands can be
forwarded to the hotspot through the RF AP.
Multiple access techniques are also required in
the case where multiple UDs have access to the
same VLC cell. Also, provisioning of resources
among neighboring cells can be utilized to miti-
gate interference. Time division, frequency divi-
sion, and code division techniques are suitable for
resource allocation in both cases. Dynamic
resource allocation also offers flexibility such that
resources are not assigned to unused VLC cells.
At the network layer, traffic distribution or load
balancing techniques should be observed. This
implies optimal distribution of UDs across VLC
and RF APs as well as handover under the con-
straints of dynamic UDs. Figure 4 provides a high
level view of the handover flow diagram. Hori-
zontal handover (HHO) occurs between hotspots.
Vertical handover (VHO) occurs when rerouting
UD traffic from the RF AP to a hotspot or vice
versa. The handover mechanism observes four
major components:
System access occurs when a UD establishes a
network connection with the RF AP.
Hotspot discovery and channel monitoring
allow the UD to observe the environment and
determine the quality of each connection.
Handover assessment evaluates the utility
function based on connection strengths and
UD state information.
Handover performance negotiates the rerout-
ing of traffic to a different AP.
Motion tracking is particularly important in
the VHO assessment since static UDs are best
suited for VLC and mobile UDs are better suit-
ed for RF.
SCENARIOS FOR VLC INTEGRATION
In order to motivate the use of VLC within 5G
networks, we observe various scenarios to ana-
lyze when integration of distributed VLC cells
IEEE Wireless Communications August 2015
Access network Access network Access network
+
Router Router Router
Figure 3. RF/VLC HetNet Topologies. UDs select between the RF link and
either a symmetric VLC link (left), asymmetric non-interfering link (mid-
dle), or asymmetric link with interference (right).
System
Perform VHO RF link
access
VLC link
Hotspot Channel
discovery monitoring
None Perform HHO
Assess VHO
VHO
VHO Assess HHO
handover
Perform VHO
None
Figure 4. High level handover flow graph.
improves system performance. In a static envi-
ronment, potential aggregate throughput
improvement depends on the relationship
between UD rate requirements, R, the number
of UDs, N, and the RF and VLC link capacities,
CRF and CVLC. We define capacity as the maxi-
mum throughput an AP can provide and consid-
er the effect of downlink throughput only. For
simplicity, we assume that all UDs have the
same R, the access network does not limit capac-
ity, and UDs are evenly distributed among VLC
cells with a 1:1 AP to UD ratio.
The top graphics in Fig. 5 depict impactful
scenarios when selection-based methods are
used such that every UD is connected to the net-
work via either RF or VLC. Given a single UD
(Fig. 5a), VLC improves performance only when
CVLC > CRF and R > CRF. Given multiple UDs,
we consider the following cases:
Aggregate throughput requirement, NR, can
be satisfied by the RF cell.
Aggregate requirement can be satisfied by a
VLC cell but not the RF cell.
Aggregate requirement can be satisfied by nei-
ther the RF cell nor a single VLC cell.
Case 1: VLC adds no benefit because the RF
cell can accommodate all UDs (not shown in
Fig. 5).
Case 2: Since a single VLC cell can satisfy all
requirements, offloading UDs to unique VLC
cells guarantees that requirements are met. By
definition, the RF cell alone cannot satisfy
requirements (not shown in Fig. 5).
Case 3: A single cell cannot accommodate
aggregate throughput requirements. However,
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(5a) Selection-based methods (single user) (5b) Selection-based methods (NR>max(CRF,CVLC))

2 3 4 2 3 4

Per-user rate requirement (R)

Per-user rate requirement (R)
R=CVLC R=CVLC

1 1
5 5

R=CRF CRF=CVLC R=CRF CRF=CVLC

8 7 6 8 7 6
CRF << CVLC CRF=CVLC CRF >> CVLC CRF << CVLC CRF=CVLC CRF >> CVLC
Ratio of RF capacity to VLC capacity (CRF/CVLC) Ratio of RF capacity to VLC capacity (CRF/CVLC)

(5c) Aggregation vs. selection (single user) (5d) Aggregation vs. selection (NR>max(CRF,CVLC))

2 3 4 2 3 4
Per-user rate requirement (R)

R=CVLC

Per-user rate requirement (R)

R=CVLC

1 1
5 5

R=CRF CRF=CVLC R=CRF CRF=CVLC

8 7 6 8 7 6
CRF << CVLC CRF=CVLC CRF >> CVLC CRF << CVLC CRF=CVLC CRF >> CVLC
Ratio of RF capacity to VLC capacity (CRF/CVLC) Ratio of RF capacity to VLC capacity (CRF/CVLC)

No added benefit Added benefit

Potential added benefit Satisfies requirements not otherwise met

Figure 5. Benefit analysis for added VLC with selection-based traffic distribution vs. RF only (top figures) and the addition of data
aggregation capabilities vs. VLC with selection-based traffic distribution (bottom figures). Analysis is shown for the single user
scenario (left figures) and the multi-user scenario where aggregate capcity requirements can be accomodated by neither the RF
channel nor a single VLC channel (right figures).

the bandwidth density and scalability of VLC
add benefit since UDs can associate with unique
VLC cells rather than sharing the RF channel.
This case is shown in Fig. 5b. When CVLC R,
individual UD requirements can be satisfied by
their unique VLC AP (Regions 1, 6, 7, 8). When
C VLC < R, aggregate requirements cannot be
met. However, adding VLC can increase aggre-
gate throughput in most scenarios. If CVLC either
exceeds or is approximately equal to CRF, aggre-
gate throughput scales with the number of VLC
cells and associated UDs (Regions 2, 3). When
R CRF >> CVLC, aggregate throughput increas-
es by C VLC with each UD beyond the first, but
the benefit is dependent on the ratio of CRF to
CVLC (Region 4). Finally, there is potential for
improvement when NR > C RF > R > C VLC. In
this scenario, the VLC links cannot accommo-
date requirements of individual UDs. However,
aggregate throughput improves as long as the
increase in throughput from offloading a UD to
its VLC channel outweighs any associated loss in
throughput on the RF channel (Region 5).
The bottom graphics in Fig. 5 indicate when
data aggregation provides benefit beyond selec-
tion-based integration. We assume that overhead
from aggregation is negligible. Given a single UD
(Fig. 5c), requirements are satisfied without the
addition of data aggregation if CVLC R or CRF
R. However, data aggregation increases
throughput and potentially satisfies requirements
when R > C VLC and R > C RF . Given multiple
UDs, we again observe the cases described above.
Case 1: As with selection-based integration,
VLC adds no benefit because the RF cell accom-
modates all UDs.
Case 2: When capacity of a single VLC cell
can handle the aggregate throughput require-
ments, data aggregation provides no additional
benefit over selection-based integration.
Case 3: In this case, data aggregation adds no
benefit when C VLC R since selection-based
methods allow UD requirements to be satisfied
by their unique AP (Regions 1, 6, 7, 8). Howev-
er, when R > C VLC , aggregation provides the
flexibility to distribute traffic from an individual
UD across media, maximizing throughput of the
unique VLC cell assigned to the UD and also
utilizing the available capacity of the RF cell
(Regions 2, 3, 4, 5).
We can see with these observations that VLC
integration can be impactful even if the capacity
of an individual VLC link is on the same order
of magnitude or less than that of the RF link.

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This is due to the scaling of aggregate capacity
with additional VLC cells. Also, the benefits of
data aggregation come primarily from scenarios
where individual UDs have very high rate
requirements or VLC link capacity is very low.
While this is the case on occasion, we expect the
primary communication benefits of VLC integra-
tion to come from multi-user scenarios where
aggregate requirements can be distributed
among various cells via selection-based methods.
Although the evaluation here does not account
for traffic priority or system dynamics, it pro-
vides a general sense as to scenarios where VLC
integration will provide the most benefit and, in
turn, have the greatest opportunity for success.
CONCLUSIONS
There are many indicators of the limitations of
our existing wireless data infrastructure increas-
ingly becoming a barrier to advances in perva-
sive and ubiquitous computing and communi-
cations. One of the most promising approaches
to finding more capacity is the adoption of small-
er cells. In this article we have discussed the sys-
tem level requirements for practical implementa-
tion of hyper-dense VLC cells that gain their
efficacy by virtue of their directionality. We have
presented motivating factors for the use of such
cells as well as the constraints, leading to ideal
operation as a supplemental component within
RF/VLC HetNets that implement dual-use VLC
luminaires. We have also presented key focal
areas where researchers in the field will have a
chance to make an impact in the design of such
systems. As the VLC research community moves
forward, system level design considerations must
account for practical implementation in order to
motivate the broad adoption of VLC by industry.
It is essential that the value of VLC is compara-
ble to other directional media such as mmWave
and infrared technologies. Therefore, develop-
ment of strategies and techniques for integration
within next generation communication and light-
ing systems will ultimately define the level of
success of the VLC technology.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported primarily by the Engi-
neering Research Centers Program of the
National Science Foundation under NSF Coop-
erative Agreement no. EEC-0812056.
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BIOGRAPHIES
MICHAEL RAHAIM is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boston University,
working under the guidance of Dr. T. D. C. Little as a
member of the National Science Foundation Smart Lighting
Engineering Research Center. His research focus is in the
area of heterogeneous wireless networks, specifically relat-
ing to the integration of directional wireless communica-
tions within next generation wireless systems. His research
also focuses on software defined radio, visible light com-
munication, and smart lighting. He received his B.S. degree
in electrical and computer systems engineering from Rens-
selaer Polytechnic Institute in 2007, and his M.S. degree in
computer engineering from Boston University in 2011. He
is currently a student member of the IEEE and the IEEE
Communication Society.
T HOMAS D.C. L ITTLE is a professor in the Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boston University.
He is associate director of the National Science Founda-
tion Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center, a col-
laboration of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the
University of New Mexico, and Boston University. His
recent efforts address research in pervasive computing
using wireless technologies. This includes video stream-
ing, optical communications with the visible spectrum,
and applications related to ecological sensing, vehicular
networks, and wireless healthcare. He received his B.S.
degree in biomedical engineering from RPI in 1983, and
his M.S. degree in electrical engineering and Ph.D. degree
in computer engineering from Syracuse University in 1989
and 1991, respectively. He is a senior member of the
IEEE, a member of the IEEE Computer and Communica-
tions Societies, and a member of the Association for
Computing Machinery.
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