{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,8]],"date-time":"2026-05-08T11:21:04Z","timestamp":1778239264594,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"13","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,29]],"date-time":"2021-06-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1624924800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"the Romanian Ministry of Research and Innovation","award":["Romanian Ministry of Research and Innovation, CCCDI - UEFISCDI, project number PN-III-P1-1.2-PCCDI-2017-0917, contract 21 PCCDI\/2018, within PNCDI III"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["Romanian Ministry of Research and Innovation, CCCDI - UEFISCDI, project number PN-III-P1-1.2-PCCDI-2017-0917, contract 21 PCCDI\/2018, within PNCDI III"]}]},{"name":"Romania National Council for Higher Education Funding, CNFIS","award":["CNFIS-FDI-2021-0357"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CNFIS-FDI-2021-0357"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The use of Visible Light Communications (VLC) in vehicular applications has become a major research area due to its simplicity, high performance to cost ratio, and great deployment potential. In this context, this article provides one of the very few analyses and experimental evaluations concerning the integration of a light dimming function in vehicular VLC systems. For this purpose, a vehicle-to-vehicle VLC prototype has been implemented and used to evaluate the systems\u2019 communication performances in light dimming conditions, while decreasing the duty cycle from 40% to 1%, and increasing the communication range from 1 to 40\u201350 m. The experimental results showed that in normal lighting conditions, the VLC technology can easily support low duty cycle light dimming for ranges up to 40 m, while maintaining a 10\u22126 BER. Nevertheless, in strong optical noise conditions, when the system reaches its SNR limit, the communication range can decrease by half, whereas the BER can increase by 2\u20134 orders of magnitude. This article provides consistent evidence concerning the high potential of the VLC technology to support inter-vehicle communication links, even in light dimming conditions.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s21134446","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,29]],"date-time":"2021-06-29T22:39:43Z","timestamp":1625006383000},"page":"4446","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":31,"title":["Analysis and Experimental Investigation of the Light Dimming Effect on Automotive Visible Light Communications Performances"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4267-2919","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"C\u0103t\u0103lin","family":"Beguni","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Integrated Center for Research, Development and Innovation in Advanced Materials, Nanotechnologies, and Distributed Systems for Fabrication and Control, Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, 720229 Suceava, Romania"},{"name":"Department of Computers, Electronics and Automation, Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, 720229 Suceava, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2200-6775","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alin-Mihai","family":"C\u0103ilean","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Integrated Center for Research, Development and Innovation in Advanced Materials, Nanotechnologies, and Distributed Systems for Fabrication and Control, Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, 720229 Suceava, Romania"},{"name":"Department of Computers, Electronics and Automation, Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, 720229 Suceava, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sebastian-Andrei","family":"Av\u0103t\u0103m\u0103ni\u021bei","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Integrated Center for Research, Development and Innovation in Advanced Materials, Nanotechnologies, and Distributed Systems for Fabrication and Control, Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, 720229 Suceava, Romania"},{"name":"Department of Computers, Electronics and Automation, Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, 720229 Suceava, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Mihai","family":"Dimian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Integrated Center for Research, Development and Innovation in Advanced Materials, Nanotechnologies, and Distributed Systems for Fabrication and Control, Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, 720229 Suceava, Romania"},{"name":"Department of Computers, Electronics and Automation, Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, 720229 Suceava, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Masini, B.M., Bazzi, A., and Zanella, A. (2018). A Survey on the Roadmap to Mandate on Board Connectivity and Enable V2V-Based Vehicular Sensor Networks. Sensors, 18.","DOI":"10.3390\/s18072207"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zadobrischi, E., Cosovanu, L.-M., and Dimian, M. (2020). Traffic Flow Density Model and Dynamic Traffic Congestion Model Simulation Based on Practice Case with Vehicle Network and System Traffic Intelligent Communication. Symmetry, 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/sym12071172"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zadobrischi, E., and Dimian, M. (2021). Inter-Urban Analysis of Pedestrian and Drivers through a Vehicular Network Based on Hybrid Communications Embedded in a Portable Car System and Advanced Image Processing Technologies. Remote Sens., 13.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs13071234"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"161","DOI":"10.1109\/COMST.2020.3034224","article-title":"Vehicular Visible Light Communications: A Survey","volume":"23","author":"Memedi","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2681","DOI":"10.1109\/COMST.2017.2706940","article-title":"Current Challenges for Visible Light Communications Usage in Vehicle Applications: A Survey","volume":"19","author":"Dimian","year":"2017","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"109","DOI":"10.1109\/TIA.2014.2328790","article-title":"Solid-State Lighting: The New Normal in Lighting","volume":"51","author":"Cole","year":"2015","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"29","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rser.2014.08.028","article-title":"A review on light-emitting diode based automotive headlamps","volume":"41","author":"Long","year":"2015","journal-title":"Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Av\u0103t\u0103m\u0103ni\u021bei, S.A., C\u0103ilean, A.M., Zadobrischi, E., Done, A., Dimian, M., and Popa, V. (2019, January 12\u201313). Intensive Testing of Infrastructure-to-Vehicle Visible Light Communications in Real Outdoor Scenario: Evaluation of a 50 m link in Direct Sun Exposure. Proceedings of the 2019 Global LIFI Congress (GLC), Paris, France.","DOI":"10.1109\/GLC.2019.8864129"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Av\u0103t\u0103m\u0103ni\u021bei, S.A., C\u0103ilean, A.-M., Done, A., Dimian, M., and Prelipceanu, M. (2020). Noise Resilient Outdoor Traffic Light Visible Light Communications System Based on Logarithmic Transimpedance Circuit: Experimental Demonstration of a 50 m Reliable Link in Direct Sun Exposure. Sensors, 20.","DOI":"10.3390\/s20030909"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Av\u0103t\u0103m\u0103ni\u021bei, S.-A., C\u0103ilean, A.-M., Done, A., Dimian, M., Popa, V., and Prelipceanu, M. (2020). Design and Intensive Experimental Evaluation of an Enhanced Visible Light Communication System for Automotive Applications. Sensors, 20.","DOI":"10.3390\/s20113190"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"12040","DOI":"10.1109\/TVT.2019.2948041","article-title":"IEEE 802.15.7-Compliant Ultra-Low Latency Relaying VLC System for Safety-Critical ITS","volume":"68","author":"Nawaz","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5334","DOI":"10.1109\/JSEN.2018.2839673","article-title":"Vehicle-to-Vehicle Visible Light Phase-Shift Rangefinder Based on the Automotive Lighting","volume":"18","author":"Chassagne","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Sens. J."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"532","DOI":"10.1109\/TIV.2019.2938087","article-title":"Simultaneous Visible Light Communication and Distance Measurement Based on the Automotive Lighting","volume":"4","author":"Chassagne","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Intell. Veh."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Beguni, C., Av\u0103t\u0103m\u0103ni\u021bei, S.-A., C\u0103ilean, A.-M., Zadobrischi, E., Dimian, M., Guan, H., and Chassagne, L. (2019, January 18\u201320). Toward a mixed visible light communications and ranging system for automotive applications. Proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on Electrical and Electronics Engineering (ISEEE), Galati, Romania.","DOI":"10.1109\/ISEEE48094.2019.9136155"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Cailean, A., Cagneau, B., Chassagne., L., Popa, V., and Dimian, M. (2014, January 10). A survey on the usage of DSRC and VLC in communication-based vehicle safety applications. Proceedings of the IEEE 21st Symposium on Communications and Vehicular Technology in the Benelux (SCVT), Delft, The Netherlands.","DOI":"10.1109\/SCVT.2014.7046710"},{"key":"ref_16","unstructured":"(2019). IEEE Standard for Local and Metropolitan Area Networks-Part 15.7: Short-Range Optical Wireless Communications; IEEE Std 802.15.7-2018 (Revision of IEEE Std 802.15.7-2011), IEEE."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"169","DOI":"10.1109\/MCOM.2017.1600206","article-title":"Impact of IEEE 802.15.7 Standard on Visible Light Communications Usage in Automotive Applications","volume":"55","author":"Dimian","year":"2017","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Mag."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"72","DOI":"10.1109\/MCOM.2012.6163585","article-title":"IEEE 802.15.7 visible light communication: Modulation schemes and dimming support","volume":"50","author":"Rajagopal","year":"2012","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Mag."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"24","DOI":"10.1109\/MCOM.2015.7060515","article-title":"Standards for indoor Optical Wireless Communications","volume":"53","author":"Boucouvalas","year":"2015","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Mag."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Uysal, M. (2019, January 3\u20137). Visible Light Communications: From Theory to Industrial Standardization. Proceedings of the 2019 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC), San Diego, CA, USA.","DOI":"10.1364\/OFC.2019.Th3I.4"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Georlette, V., Moeyaert, V., Bette, S., and Point, N. (2020, January 1\u20132). Outdoor Optical Wireless Communication: Potentials, standardization and challenges for Smart Cities. Proceedings of the 29th Wireless and Optical Communications Conference (WOCC), Newark, NJ, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/WOCC48579.2020.9114953"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"29","DOI":"10.1109\/MWC.2015.7096282","article-title":"Dimming schemes for visible light communication: The state of research","volume":"22","author":"Zafar","year":"2015","journal-title":"IEEE Wirel. Commun."},{"key":"ref_23","unstructured":"Dyble, M., Narendran, N., Bierman, A., and Klein, T. (August, January 31). Impact of Dimming White LEDs: Chromaticity Shifts Due to Different Dimming Methods. Proceedings of the SPIE-The International Society for Optical Engineering, San Diego, CA, USA."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Idris, S., Aibinu, A.M., Koyunlu, G., and Sanusi, J. (2019, January 23-25). A Survey of Modulation Schemes in Visible Light Communications. Proceedings of the 2019 3rd International Conference on Trends in Electronics and Informatics (ICOEI), Tirunelveli, India.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICOEI.2019.8862538"},{"key":"ref_25","unstructured":"Borogovac, T., Rahaim, M.B., Tuganbayeva, M., and Little, T.D.C. (2011, January 5\u20139). \u201cLights-off\u201d visible light communications. Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE GLOBECOM Workshops (GC Wkshps), Houston, TX, USA."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"184","DOI":"10.1049\/iet-opt.2014.0107","article-title":"Modelling and analysis of M-ary variable pulse position modulation for visible light communications","volume":"9","author":"Yoo","year":"2015","journal-title":"IET Optoelectron."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"43","DOI":"10.1016\/j.optcom.2015.11.065","article-title":"A Modified VPPM Algorithm of VLC Systems Suitable for Fast Dimming Environment","volume":"365","author":"Lee","year":"2016","journal-title":"Opt. Commun."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1136","DOI":"10.1109\/LPT.2011.2157676","article-title":"Modulations for visible light communications with dimming control","volume":"23","author":"Lee","year":"2011","journal-title":"IEEE Photonics Technol. Lett."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"465","DOI":"10.1109\/50.16882","article-title":"MPPM: A Method for Improving the Band\u2013Utilization Efficiency in Optical PPM","volume":"7","author":"Sugiyama","year":"1989","journal-title":"J. Lightw. Technol."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Siddique, A.B., and Tahir, M. (2011, January 9\u201312). Joint brightness control and data transmission for visible light communication systems based on white LEDs. Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference (CCNC), Las Vegas, NV, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/CCNC.2011.5766321"},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"168","DOI":"10.1016\/j.optcom.2019.06.054","article-title":"MPPM based dimming control scheme in visible light communication systems","volume":"451","author":"Deng","year":"2019","journal-title":"Opt. Commun."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tian, Z., Wright, K., and Zhou, X. (2016, January 3\u20137). The darklight rises: Visible light communication in the dark. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking, New York, NY, USA.","DOI":"10.1145\/2973750.2973772"},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"493","DOI":"10.1007\/s11082-020-02614-z","article-title":"Interactive internet of things based on dark light system for smart room","volume":"52","author":"Fayed","year":"2020","journal-title":"Opt. Quantum Electron."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wang, J.Y., Wang, J.B., Chen, M., and Song, X. (2013, January 24\u201326). Dimming scheme analysis for pulse amplitude modulated visible light communications. Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference on Wireless Communications and Signal Processing, Hangzhou, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/WCSP.2013.6677037"},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3267","DOI":"10.1109\/JLT.2013.2281209","article-title":"Multilevel transmission in dimmable visible light communication systems","volume":"31","author":"Lee","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. Lightw. Technol."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bai, B., He, Q., Xu, Z., and Fan, Y. (2012, January 15\u201318). The color shift key modulation with non-uniform signaling for visible light communication. Proceedings of the 1st IEEE International Conference on Communications in China Workshops (ICCC), Beijing, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICCCW.2012.6316471"},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2254","DOI":"10.1109\/LPT.2012.2226570","article-title":"Color intensity modulation for multicolored visible light communications","volume":"24","author":"Ahn","year":"2012","journal-title":"IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1851","DOI":"10.1109\/LPT.2014.2337953","article-title":"Color shift keying communication system with a modified PPM synchronization scheme","volume":"26","author":"Guerra","year":"2014","journal-title":"IEEE Photonics Technol. Lett."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Shieh, W., and Djordjevic, I. (2010). OFDM for Optical Communications, Academic Press\/Elsevier.","DOI":"10.1016\/B978-0-12-374879-9.00003-4"},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"18861","DOI":"10.1364\/OE.20.018861","article-title":"Performance of dimming control scheme in visible light communication system","volume":"20","author":"Wang","year":"2012","journal-title":"Optics Express"},{"key":"ref_41","first-page":"136","article-title":"Modulation and Coding for Dimmable Visible Light Communication","volume":"27","author":"Lee","year":"2015","journal-title":"Opt. Commun."},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Yoo, J.-H., and Jung, S.-Y. (2013). Modeling and analysis of variable PPM for visible light communications. J. Wirel. Commun. Netw., 134.","DOI":"10.1186\/1687-1499-2013-134"},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Av\u0103t\u0103m\u0103ni\u021bei, S.-A., Beguni, C., C\u0103ilean, A.-M., Dimian, M., and Popa, V. (2021). Evaluation of Misalignment Effect in Vehicle-to-Vehicle Visible Light Communications: Experimental Demonstration of a 75 Meters Link. Sensors, 21.","DOI":"10.3390\/s21113577"},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ucar, S., Turan, B., Ergen, S.C., Ozkasap, O., and Ergen, M. (2016, January 25\u201329). Dimming support for visible light communication in intelligent transportation and traffic system. Proceedings of the NOMS 2016\u20142016 IEEE\/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium, Istanbul, Turkey.","DOI":"10.1109\/NOMS.2016.7502986"},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Shen, W., and Tsai, H. (2017, January 27\u201329). Testing vehicle-to-vehicle visible light communications in real-world driving scenarios. Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE Vehicular Networking Conference (VNC), Torino, Italy.","DOI":"10.1109\/VNC.2017.8275596"},{"key":"ref_46","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7905309","DOI":"10.1109\/JPHOT.2015.2499542","article-title":"Experimental Demonstration of VLC-Based Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications under Fog Conditions","volume":"7","author":"Kim","year":"2015","journal-title":"IEEE Photonics J."}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/21\/13\/4446\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T06:26:36Z","timestamp":1760163996000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/21\/13\/4446"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,29]]},"references-count":46,"journal-issue":{"issue":"13","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,7]]}},"alternative-id":["s21134446"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s21134446","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,29]]}}}