Hierarchical visible light communication system

Visible light communication (VLC) has attached a lot of interests due to its safety, practicability, and efficiency. In a VLC system with multiple light-emitting-diodes (LEDs), two different types of channels named imaging channel and non-imaging channel can be used to transmit data. In this paper, basing on the channel characteristics, we propose a novel hierarchical VLC system which supports two different types of receivers simultaneously. Meanwhile, we also demonstrate how to achieve maximum throughput with optimal power allocation. Numerical results are also provided to corroborate our designs.