A study on the VLC security at the physical layer for two indoor scenarios

Abstract

The visible light communication (VLC) systems are generally considered secure since the light cannot penetrate through solid objects. However, both in the line of sight (LoS) scenarios as well as in non LoS scenarios with wide and strong optical signal, information security must be considered. The conventional information security technologies used for wireless communications based on radio frequency are not suitable to be applied straight for VLCs because of the limited hardware resources, especially for the optical receivers (oRx). In this paper, a study on the VLC security at the physical layer approach based on optical beamforming to achieve secure transmissions for indoor and underground scenarios is presented.