LiFi Physical Layer basics | LiFi PHY-I,II,III types
This page describes LiFi physical layer basics with block diagram. It mentions different types of LiFi physical layer versions viz. PHY-I, PHY-II and PHY-III with supported features and modulation code rates.
Following are the functions of LiFi Physical layer:
• Provide services to upper layer.
• Used to provide error correction at the
receiver by using FEC techniques such as Convolution encoding and RS encoding.
• Used to activate and de-activate VLC transceiver.
• Provides WQI for all the received frames.
• Helps in synchronization at the receiver using preamble
incorporated in the frame structure.
• Inserts header (PHR) at transmit end. This is decoded at receive end to determine length field of the PSDU.
• It is used for channel selection as per requirement.
• RLL (Run Length Limited) Encoding helps in correcting DC balance, clock recovery and flicker mitigation.
There are different LiFi physical layers based on different data rate and application of use such as indoor or outdoor.
LiFi PHY-I
LiFi PHY-I version is developed to meet low data rate requirement from 12 to 267 Kbps. It is ideally used for outdoor application.

Fig-1: LiFi Physical Layer Transmitter (version: PHY-I)
Modulation | RLL Code | Optical Clock rate |
FEC(RS outer code) | FEC(CC inner code) | data rate |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
OOK | Manchester | 200 KHz | (15,7) | 1/4 | 11.67 Kbps |
(15,11) | 1/3 | 24.44 Kbps | |||
(15,11) | 2/3 | 48.89 Kbps | |||
(15,11) | None | 73.3 Kbps | |||
None | None | 100Kbps | |||
VPPM | 4B6B | 400 KHz | (15,2) | None | 35.56 Kbps |
(15,4) | None | 71.11 kbps | |||
(15,7) | None | 124.4 Kbps | |||
None | None | 266.6 Kbps |
Table-1: LiFi PHY-I Operating Modes (Modulation, Code rates)
LiFi PHY-II
LiFi PHY-II version is developed to meet moderate data rate requirement from 1.25Mbps to 96 Mbps. It is ideally used for indoor application.

Fig-2: LiFi Physical Layer Transmitter (version: PHY-II)
Modulation | RLL Code | Optical Clock rate |
FEC | data rate |
---|---|---|---|---|
VPPM | 4B6B | 3.75 MHz | RS(64,32) | 1.25 Mbps |
RS(160,128) | 2 Mbps | |||
7.5 MHz | RS(64,32) | 2.5 Mbps | ||
RS(160,128) | 4 Mbps | |||
None | 5 Mbps | |||
OOK | 8B10B | 15MHz | RS(64,32) | 6 Mbps |
RS(160,128) | 9.6 Mbps | |||
30 MHz | RS(64,32) | 12 Mbps | ||
RS(160,128) | 19.2 Mbps | |||
60 MHz | RS(64,32) | 24 Mbps | ||
RS(160,128) | 38.4 Mbps | |||
120 MHz | RS(64,32) | 48 Mbps | ||
RS(160,128) | 76.8 Mbps | |||
None | 96 Mbps |
Table-2: LiFi PHY-II Operating Modes (Modulation, Code rates)
LiFi PHY-III
LiFi PHY-III version is developed to meet data rate requirement of 12 Mbps to 96 Mbps. It is used in the systems where color source based on RGB and detectors are widely employed.

Fig-3: LiFi Physical Layer Transmitter (version: PHY-III)
Modulation | Clock rate | FEC | Data rate |
---|---|---|---|
4-CSK | 12MHz | RS(64,32) | 12 Mbps |
8-CSK | 12MHz | RS(64,32) | 18 Mbps |
4-CSK | 24MHz | RS(64,32) | 24 Mbps |
8-CSK | 24MHz | RS(64,32) | 36 Mbps |
16-CSK | 24MHz | RS(64,32) | 48 Mbps |
8-CSK | 24MHz | NONE | 72 Mbps |
16-CSK | 24MHz | NONE | 96 Mbps |
Table-2: LiFi PHY-III Operating Modes
Note: Information provided on this page is derived from IEEE 802.15.7-2011 draft version. Pls. refer latest standard specifications published time to time by IEEE for any updates.
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