{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,13]],"date-time":"2026-05-13T17:23:45Z","timestamp":1778693025125,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":29,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,24]],"date-time":"2022-03-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1648080000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100002848","name":"Agencia Nacional de Investigaci\u00f3n y Desarrollo","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["1190489"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["1190489"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100002848","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100002848","name":"Agencia Nacional de Investigaci\u00f3n y Desarrollo","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["1211132"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["1211132"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100002848","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Universidad de Las Am\u00e9ricas","award":["no number"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["no number"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Underground Mining (UM) is a hostile industry that generally requires a wireless communication system as a cross-cutting axis for its optimal operation. Therefore, in the last five years, it has been shown that, in addition to radio-frequency-based communication links, wireless optical communications, such as Visible Light Communication (VLC), can be applied to UM environments. The application of VLC systems in underground mines, known as UM-VLC, must take into account the unique physical features of underground mines. Among the physical phenomena found in underground mines, the most important ones are the positioning of optical transmitters and receivers, irregular walls, shadowing, and a typical phenomenon found in tunnels known as scattering, which is caused by the atmosphere and dust particles. Consequently, it is necessary to use proper dust particle distribution models consistent with these scenarios to describe the scattering phenomenon in a coherent way in order to design realistic UM-VLC systems with better performance. Therefore, in this article, we present an in-depth study of the interaction of optical links with dust particles suspended in the UM environment and the atmosphere. In addition, we analytically derived a hemispherical 3D dust particle distribution model, along with its main statistical parameters. This analysis allows to develop a more realistic scattering channel component and presents an enhanced UM-VLC channel model. The performance of the proposed UM-VLC system is evaluated using computational numerical simulations following the IEEE 802.1.5.7 standard in terms of Channel Impulse Response (CIR), received power, Signal-to-Noise-Ratio (SNR), Root Mean Square (RMS) delay spread, and Bit Error Rate (BER). The results demonstrate that the hemispherical dust particle distribution model is more accurate and realistic in terms of the metrics evaluated compared to other models found in the literature. Furthermore, the performance of the UM-VLC system is negatively affected when the number of dust particles suspended in the environment increases.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s22072483","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,24]],"date-time":"2022-03-24T23:31:43Z","timestamp":1648164703000},"page":"2483","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":20,"title":["An Enhanced VLC Channel Model for Underground Mining Environments Considering a 3D Dust Particle Distribution Model"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"22","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3958-503X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Pablo","family":"Palacios J\u00e1tiva","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical Engineering, Universidad de Chile, Santiago 8370451, Chile"},{"name":"Escuela de Inform\u00e1tica y Telecomunicaciones, Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago 8370190, Chile"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3461-4484","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Cesar A.","family":"Azurdia-Meza","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical Engineering, Universidad de Chile, Santiago 8370451, Chile"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Iv\u00e1n","family":"S\u00e1nchez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"UDLA Telecommunications Engineering Degree FICA, Universidad de Las Am\u00e9ricas, Quito 170503, Ecuador"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5692-5673","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"David","family":"Zabala-Blanco","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computing and Industries, Universidad Cat\u00f3lica del Maule, Talca 3466706, Chile"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6391-6863","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ali","family":"Dehghan Firoozabadi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electricity, Universidad Tecnol\u00f3gica Metropolitana, Av. Jose Pedro Alessandri 1242, Santiago 7800002, Chile"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5501-5651","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ismael","family":"Soto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical Engineering, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago 9170124, Chile"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6567-8988","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Fabian","family":"Seguel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical Engineering, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago 9170124, Chile"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ito, Y., Mikami, S., Jang, H., Taheri, A., Tanaka, K., and Kawamura, Y. (2020). 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