A Low-Cost Multiplatform VLC System Prototype for Indoor Attocell Downlink Communication

• Alaf Nascimento IP Paris https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5469-3872
• Wesley Costa Hanze UAS https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5408-4383
• Higor Camporez UFES https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2197-8588
• Klaas Zwaag UFES https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8989-3703
• Francisco Santos UFES https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0331-5502
• Jair Silva UFES https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2567-184X

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/courb.2026.24109

Resumo

Devices operating in the Radio Frequency (RF) spectrum face capacity limitations due to licensed bandwidth and rapidly growing connectivity demand. Visible Light Communication (VLC) emerges as a complementary alternative, leveraging existing lighting infrastructure for energy-efficient indoor communication. However, for widespread adoption, VLC devices must achieve a cost comparable to established technologies. This work proposes a Plug-and-Play (PnP) USB dongle for VLC data reception based on low-cost hardware, along with a multiplatform interface for reactive data visualization. Our prototype achieves error-free downlink communication in attocell scenarios over distances up to 280 cm under line-of-sight (LOS) conditions.

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Author note: This work was conducted at UFES (Brazil). Alaf Nascimento is currently affiliated with IP Paris (France), and Wesley Costa with Hanze UAS (Netherlands).