The Integration of 5G, PON and VLC Technologies for Ubiquitous Connectivity in Autonomous and Cooperative Systems

Abstract

The fifth-generation (5G) of mobile communications is expected to enable emerging use cases like autonomous driving vehicles, cooperative robotics, and innovative healthcare systems. These applications primarily will be available in ultra-dense urban areas, where optical fiber infrastructure is already deployed and will become part of the 5G ecosystem. The further integration of fiber and mobile along with optical wireless technology like visible light communications (VLC) can both enable never thought before use cases and satisfy challenging key performance indicators such as increased number of connected devices, lower energy consumption, and reduced latency. In this context, we introduce the integration of 5G, optical fiber network, and VLC technologies for creating end-to-end connectivity solutions and supporting new use cases in dense urban areas. We describe the network architecture and its functionalities upon the integrated technologies. We also describe and exploit several use cases for highly-dynamic and -densely populated urban areas that can be for the first time simplified by using the proposed integrated solution. The integration of different technologies is perceived here as a unique prospective communication platform towards ubiquitous communication with anywhere, anytime, anyhow connectivity for any use case or business case that can arise in the future.