Intelligent Hybrid VLC/RF Communication Protocol for Train Data Transfer

VLC (Visible Light Communication) is a communication protocol based on light modulation for data transfer. It has benefits, such as RF interference immunity, but it also has its own set of inconveniences, namely weakness to light noise and Line Of Sight (LOS) condition. This paper presents the concept for an intelligent hybrid VLC/RF communication protocol that could potentially optimize data transfer: heavy data are transmitted through VLC in a defined and fixed environment, and the data hashes are sent through an RF channel. A potential application of this method would be for trains: The on-board closed-circuit television (CCTV) security system records take a lot of storage in modern trains and need to be unloaded in dedicated servers. The bidirectional VLC/RF communication would be used to transfer the recordings and the hash on two different channels, and the receiver would only need to contact the emitter if the computed digest does not match with the received one.