RadioInLight: doubling the data rate of VLC systems

Visible Light Communication (VLC) is considered a new paradigm for next-generation wireless communication. Recently, studies show that during the process of VLC transmission, besides the visible light signals, the transmitter also leaks out RF signals through a side channel. What is interesting is that the data transmitted in the VLC channel can be inferred from the leaked RF signals. Fundamentally, it means the leaked RF signals carry a copy of the same data in the VLC channel. In this work, we show for the first time that besides inferring the original VLC data, the leaked side channel can be smartly leveraged to carry new data, significantly increasing the data rate of current VLC systems. To realize this objective, we propose a system named RadioInLight, with designs spanning across hardware and software. Without any dedicated active RF transmission front-end which consumes power and hardware resources, RadioInLight is able to double the data rate of the VLC system by purely manipulating the free passively leaked RF signals without affecting the data rate of the original VLC transmissions.