{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,8]],"date-time":"2026-05-08T11:20:45Z","timestamp":1778239245631,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":22,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,21]],"date-time":"2017-11-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1511222400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The security and privacy provided by Visible Light Communication (VLC) technologies is an area that has been slightly addressed due to the misconception that, since light does not go through solid objects like walls, VLC-based communications cannot be eavesdropped on by outside observers. As an upcoming technology, VLC is expected to be used in multiple environments were, due to radio frequency RF overuse or limitations, RF solutions cannot or should not be employed. In this work, we study the eavesdropping characteristics of a VLC-based communication. To evaluate these concerns, a two-step process was followed. First, several simulations of a standardly used scenario were run. Later on, experimental tests were performed. Following those tests, the results of the simulations and the experimental tests were analyzed. The results of these simulations and tests seemed to indicate that VLC channels can be eavesdropped on without considerable difficulties. Furthermore, the results showed that sniffing attacks could be performed from areas outside the expected coverage of the VLC infrastructure. Finally, the use of the simulation such as the one implemented in this work to recognize places from which sniffing is possible helps determine the risk for eavesdropping that our VLC-based network has.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s17112687","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,21]],"date-time":"2017-11-21T11:23:20Z","timestamp":1511263400000},"page":"2687","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":24,"title":["Study and Validation of Eavesdropping Scenarios over a Visible Light Communication Channel"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8743-8528","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ignacio","family":"Marin-Garcia","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Facultad de Ingenieria en Electricidad y Computacion, Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral (ESPOL), P.O. Box 09-01-5863 Guayaquil, Ecuador"},{"name":"Instituto para el Desarrollo de las Telecomunicaciones (IDeTIC), Universidad de las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35001 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6264-7577","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Victor","family":"Guerra","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto para el Desarrollo de las Telecomunicaciones (IDeTIC), Universidad de las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35001 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Rafael","family":"Perez-Jimenez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto para el Desarrollo de las Telecomunicaciones (IDeTIC), Universidad de las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35001 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"26","DOI":"10.1109\/MCOM.2013.6685754","article-title":"Visible light communication: Opportunities, challenges and the path to market","volume":"51","author":"Jovicic","year":"2013","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Mag."},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"(2017, October 01). IEEE Standard for Local and Metropolitan Area Networks\u2013Part 15.7: Short-Range Wireless Optical Communication Using Visible Light, 2011. Available online: http:\/\/ieeexplore.ieee.org\/document\/6016195\/."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mostafa, A., and Lampe, L. (2014, January 10\u201314). Physical-layer security for indoor visible light communications. Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), Sydney, NSW, Australia.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICC.2014.6883837"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mostafa, A., and Lampe, L. (2015, January 13\u201315). Enhancing the security of VLC links: Physical-layer approaches. Proceedings of the 2015 Summer Topicals Meeting Series (SUM), Nassau, Bahamas.","DOI":"10.1109\/PHOSST.2015.7248182"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"81","DOI":"10.1016\/j.optcom.2015.01.055","article-title":"Secure communication zone for white-light LED visible light communication","volume":"344","author":"Chow","year":"2015","journal-title":"Opt. Commun."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"234","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ifacol.2015.07.039","article-title":"Security issues in visible light communication systems","volume":"48","author":"Blinowski","year":"2015","journal-title":"IFAC-PapersOnLine"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Classen, J., Chen, J., Steinmetzer, D., Hollick, M., and Knightly, E. (2015, January 11). The Spy Next Door: Eavesdropping on High Throughput Visible Light Communications. Proceedings of the 2Nd International Workshop on Visible Light Communications Systems, Paris, France.","DOI":"10.1145\/2801073.2801075"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Marin-Garcia, I., Ramirez-Aguilera, A.M., Guerra, V., Rabadan, J., and Perez-Jimenez, R. (2016, January 20\u201322). Data sniffing over an open VLC channel. Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Communication Systems, Networks and Digital Signal Processing (CSNDSP), Prague, Czech Republic.","DOI":"10.1109\/CSNDSP.2016.7573963"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Prasad, R., Mihovska, A., Cianca, E., and Mukherjee, S. (2012, January 17\u201320). Comparative overview of UWB and VLC for data-intensive and security-sensitive applications. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Ultra-Wideband, Syracuse, NY, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICUWB.2012.6340468"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"56","DOI":"10.1109\/MCOM.2011.6011734","article-title":"Indoor optical wireless communication: Potential and state-of-the-art","volume":"49","author":"Elgala","year":"2011","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Mag."},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"Mahdy, A., and Deogun, J.S. (2004, January 21\u201325). Wireless optical communications: A survey. Proceedings of the IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC), Atlanta, GA, USA."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"13015","DOI":"10.1364\/OE.23.013015","article-title":"Smart LED allocation scheme for efficient multiuser visible light communication networks","volume":"23","author":"Sewaiwar","year":"2015","journal-title":"Opt. Exp."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1592","DOI":"10.1109\/TCE.2011.6131130","article-title":"TDOA-based optical wireless indoor localization using LED ceiling lamps","volume":"57","author":"Jung","year":"2011","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Consum. Electron."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3302","DOI":"10.1109\/JLT.2013.2281592","article-title":"Position Accuracy of Time-of-Arrival Based Ranging Using Visible Light With Application in Indoor Localization Systems","volume":"31","author":"Wang","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. Lightwave Technol."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Marin-Garcia, I., Chavez-Burbano, P., Mu\u00f1oz-Arcentles, A., Calero-Bravo, V., and Perez-Jimenez, R. (2015, January 9\u201312). Indoor location technique based on visible light communications and ultrasound emitters. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Consumer Electronics (ICCE), Las Vegas, NV, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICCE.2015.7066421"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Rabadan, J., Guerra, V., Rodr\u00edguez, R., Rufo, J., Luna-Rivera, M., and Perez-Jimenez, R. (2017). Hybrid Visible Light and Ultrasound-Based Sensor for Distance Estimation. Sensors, 17.","DOI":"10.3390\/s17020330"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tronghop, D., Hwang, J., Jung, S., Shin, Y., and Yoo, M. (2012, January 1\u20133). Modeling and analysis of the wireless channel formed by LED angle in visible light communication. Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Network 2012, Bali, Indonesia.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICOIN.2012.6164399"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"100","DOI":"10.1109\/TCE.2004.1277847","article-title":"Fundamental analysis for visible-light communication system using LED lights","volume":"50","author":"Komine","year":"2004","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Consum. Electron."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"212","DOI":"10.1109\/MCOM.2017.1600872CM","article-title":"IEEE 802.15.7r1 Reference Channel Models for Visible Light Communications","volume":"55","author":"Uysal","year":"2017","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Mag."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ashok, A., Gruteser, M., Mandayam, N., and Dana, K. (2011, January 23\u201325). Characterizing multiplexing and diversity in visual MIMO. Proceedings of the 2011 45th Annual Conference on Information Sciences and Systems (CISS), Baltimore, MD, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/CISS.2011.5766257"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1109\/JPHOT.2016.2633395","article-title":"High Speed Imaging 3 x 3 MIMO Phosphor White-Light LED Based Visible Light Communication System","volume":"8","author":"Hsu","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Photon. J."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2180","DOI":"10.1109\/TWC.2008.060848","article-title":"Guaranteeing Secrecy using Artificial Noise","volume":"7","author":"Goel","year":"2008","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Wirel. Commun."}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/17\/11\/2687\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T18:50:29Z","timestamp":1760208629000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/17\/11\/2687"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,21]]},"references-count":22,"journal-issue":{"issue":"11","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,11]]}},"alternative-id":["s17112687"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s17112687","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,21]]}}}