Dissertation Defense – Daniel Kwabena Tettey (PHDEE)

Daniel Kwabena Tettey – PhD. Electrical Electronics Engineering

Prof. Dr. Murat Uysal – Advisor

Date: 06.05.2026

Time: 09:00

Location: AB4- 428

Vehicular Visible Light Communication: Prototype Designs,

Implementations, and Experimental Verification in Static and Mobility

Conditions

Prof. Murat Uysal, Özyeğin University

Assoc. Prof. Evşen Yanmaz, Özyeğin University

Asst. Prof. Cağatay Edemen, Özyeğin University

Prof. Eylem Erdoğan, Izmir Institute of Technology

Assoc. Prof. Muhammed Fatih Toy, İstanbul Medipol University

Abstract:

The proliferation of LED-based automotive lighting presents a compelling opportunity for high-bandwidth, interference-resilient vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication. This thesis addresses the fundamental challenge of deploying Visible Light Communication (VLC) in real vehicular environments: link reliability under mobility, limited spatial coverage due to the directional nature of optical channels, and insufficient spectral efficiency under dynamic channel conditions. Through four purpose-built experimental platforms implemented on Software-Defined Radio (SDR) hardware using real automotive LED headlights and taillights, this work advances vehicular VLC from indoor proof-of-concept to outdoor, mobility-validated system demonstration. An OOK VLC transceiver prototype is first implemented, incorporating all essential baseband signal processing blocks and experimentally verified with close agreement between measured and theoretical BER. Building on this, a dual-headlamp MISO vehicular VLC system is evaluated under static and dynamic driving conditions, demonstrating an 8% Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) improvement over single-headlight transmission and revealing that a single photodetector cannot sustain continuous link availability during vehicular maneuvers. This MISO architecture is then extended to support real-time V2V video streaming, achieving 400 kbps over distances up to 16 m. To overcome narrow field-of-view coverage limitations, a quasi-omnidirectional transceiver architecture combining dual headlight transmission with a six-photodetector receiver is implemented and validated across challenging outdoor road geometries, achieving 100% PDR up to 15 m under all scenarios, including severe misalignment. This system established error-free communication up to 29 m under perfect alignment. Finally, a closed-loop rate-adaptive vehicular VLC transceiver is presented, employing DCO-OFDM with an OOK taillight feedback channel to dynamically select among BPSK, 4-QAM, 16-QAM, and 64-QAM, achieving a maximum spectral efficiency of 2.7 bps/Hz. These contributions demonstrate that vehicular VLC systems designed with spatial diversity, omnidirectional multi-aperture reception, and adaptive physical layer can simultaneously satisfy the reliability, coverage, and spectral efficiency requirements of future Intelligent Transportation Systems, positioning VLC as a viable complementary technology to RF-based V2X communication.

Bio:

Daniel Kwabena Tettey is a Ph.D. candidate in Electrical/Electronic Engineering at Özyeğin University, Istanbul, Türkiye, where he conducts research in the CT&T and OKATEM Research Laboratory. He received the B.Sc. degree in Telecommunication Engineering from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, and the M.Eng. degree in Electronics Engineering from Hanbat National University, South Korea. His doctoral research focuses on the design, prototype implementation and experimental investigation of vehicular communications systems that employs light as the medium of information exchange. His research interest covers wireless communication, V2X communication, software-defined radio (SDR), hybrid RF/optical wireless communication systems, ML for wireless system design and prototyping.