Abstract
Visible light communications (VLC) technology is a
relatively new emerging telecommunication paradigm. It offers
the opportunity to design cost-effective communication systems
due to the dual use of the light sources, which are exploited as
illumination devices and as communication antennas. However,
this technology is mostly deployed in short-range communication
applications because of the light diffusion range, which is short
by nature. One good response to this dilemma is the imple-
mentation of relay-assisted cooperative communication systems.
Cooperative VLC systems provide three advantages, which are
an increase in the transmission range, an improvement of the
detection, hence of the bit error rate (BER), and an improved
lighting system. In this paper, we analyze the channel response
of a single-relay indoor VLC system based on an amplify-and-
forward (AF) strategy. The system takes into account the fact
that the relay also receives a reflected message. Results show the
influence of the room’s reflection index, Lambertian index, the
number of scattered rays on the overall channel response and
confirms the importance of relay-assisted strategies in improving
systems’ reliability.