Internet of radio and light: 5G building network radio and edge architecture

The Internet of Radio-Light (IoRL) is a cutting-edge system paradigm to enable seamless 5G service provision in indoor environments, such as homes, hospitals, and museums. The system draws on innovative architectural structure that sits on the synergy between the Radio Access Network (RAN) technologies of millimeter Wave communications (mmWave) and Visible Light Communications (VLC) for improving network throughput, latency, and coverage compared to existing efforts. The aim of this paper is to introduce the IoRL system architecture and present the key technologies and techniques utilised at each layer of the system. Special emphasis is given in detailing the IoRL physical layer (Layer 1) and Medium Access Control layer (MAC, Layer 2) by means of describing their unique design characteristics and interfaces as well as the robust IoRL methods of improving the estimation accuracy of user positioning relying on uplink mmWave and downlink VLC measurements.