Optimal Packet Size in Optical Wireless Communication

Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) proved to be one of the complementary technologies to radio frequency, which can help solve the crowded spectrum problem. Furthermore, new applications such as the Internet of Things and Wireless Sensor Networks can benefit from OWC. With the increase in connected devices, using the channel efficiently becomes even more necessary. This paper presents a model for the OWC channel and develops a method to calculate the OWC channel’s efficiency. The model was validated experimentally with the OpenVLC 1.1 platform. With it, it is possible to determine the ideal packet size to maximize the channel’s efficiency. Using Pearson’s correlation method between model data and experimental values, we obtained up to 99.8% correlation.