A path loss model for vehicle-to-vehicle visible light communications

Abstract

The increasing adoption of LEDs in exterior automotive lighting makes visible light communication (VLC) a natural solution for vehicular networking. In this paper, we consider a vehicle-to-vehicle link and propose a path loss expression as a function of distance and different weather conditions. We conduct ray tracing simulations and verify the accuracy of proposed expression. We further use this expression to derive the achievable transmission distance for a targeted data rate while satisfying a given value of bit error rate. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the achievable distances for single and dual photodetector deployment cases.