Privacy Increase in VLC System Based on Hyperchaotic Map

Visible light communications (VLC) have been the focus of many recent investigations due to its potential for transmitting data at a higher bitrate than conventional communication systems. Alongside the advantages of being energy efficient through the use of LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes), it is imperative that these systems also take in consideration privacy and security measures available. This work highlights the technical aspects of a typical 16-QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) VLC system incorporating an enhanced privacy feature using an hyperchaotic map to scramble the symbols. The results obtained in this study showed a low dispersion symbol constellation while communicating at 100 Baud and with a 1 m link. Using the measured EVM (Error Vector Magnitude) of the constellation, the BER (Bit Error Rate) of this system was estimated to be bellow 10
⁻¹²
which is lower than the threshold limit of 3.8.10
⁻³
that corresponds to the 7% hard-decision forward error correction (HD- FEC) for optimal transmission, showing that this technique can be implemented with higher bitrates and with a higher modulation index.