Abstract
The paper is dedicated to analysis of hard switching (HS) and soft switching (SS) methods for hybrid VLC/RF systems. VLC communication is well known for its efficient high data rate service for short range wireless communication, however it relies on the condition of line of sight link. Its counterpart, RF communication, is easy to implement and widely available in most places. In this work, we consider hybrid VLC/RF system which takes advantages of both links by implementing HS and SS methods. In HS, either VLC or RF, whichever has higher throughput, is selected. In SS, on the other hand, data is transmitted though both links simultaneously however the total available electrical power is shared between the links. We demonstrate that SS outperforms HS when the power is optimally shared between the VLC and RF links.