Range-rate tradeoffs in the communication between LED traffic lights and vehicles

Visible light communication between light emitting diode (LED) traffic lights and vehicles with a receiving photodiode front-end is developed for intelligent transportation systems. In this letter, the communication data rates for different ranges are evaluated. The data rates are based on real scenarios of the background noise and path losses and are experimentally obtained with a testing system built upon commercial off-the-shelf components. Comparisons of range-rate performance for different average noise levels are also conducted with the use of red/yellow/green LED lights. Results show that achieving the data rates of kilobits per second at a communication range of hundred meters is possible under the ordinary noise scenario, a finding that is highly significant for practical applications.