Integration of Visible Light and Backscatter Communications for Ambient Internet of Things

Ambient backscatter communication (AmBC) is a
key enabler for green Internet of Things (IoT) employing ambient
radio frequency (RF) signals for low-power communication. The
AmBC devices discussed in the literature so far harvest light to
power their microcontrollers for controlling RF modulation and
reflection circuits. The ubiquitous presence of configurable lightemitting
diodes (LEDs) based luminaires can also leverage such
control functionalities by involving visible light communication
(VLC). In this paper, we propose a visible light-enabled AmBC
system that integrates VLC and AmBC for future ambient
power-enabled IoT. We design LiBD, a backscatter device (BD)
that uses visible light signals for both modulation control and
energy supply. We demonstrate the real-time end-to-end data
transmission with a proof of concept experiment. Evaluation
results show that the LiBD supports multiple sub-6 GHz RF
bands and can receive modulated light at frequencies up to 250
kHz. The investigations verify the feasibility of integrating the
VLC and AmBC for future green IoT systems.