Visible light backscattering communications in healthcare scenarios: link modeling and performance analysis

Sensor systems for electronic health (e-Health) applications typically rely on radio-frequency (RF) wireless components, which are bulky and energy-demanding. Moreover, their electromagnetic radiation may cause interference to medical devices and side effects on living organisms. In such applications, an intriguing alternative to RF-based transmission is visible light communications (VLC), which leverage light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for data transmission, in addition to illumination purposes. In many cases, e-Health applications demand bi-directional communication among LEDs and sensor tags. In this paper, we explore the feasibility of potentially using optical backscattering to perform indoors bi-directional VLC for e-Health applications in hospital environments. Specifically, we develop a mathematical model of the visible light backscattering link, which allows one to accurately predict the amount of light required to ensure an acceptable received power. Moreover, we analytically show the impact of the relevant system parameters on the achievable bit-error-rate performance of the information transfer process. Finally, we verify our analytical findings regarding system performance via numerical simulations.