A Bidirectional Buck-Boost Converter-Based Switching Ripple Communication Strategy for Intelligent Street Lighting Systems

Abstract The light-emitting diode (LED) is an essential component of intelligent street lighting (ISL) systems. An efficient ISL system can not only reduce power consumption by planning LED illuminating time but also reduce maintenance costs through a high degree of automation. In this paper, a buck-boost converter is used to realise composite transmission of power and signals for an ISL system. The power is modulated by the pulse width modulation (PWM) approach, and the switching ripple generated in the PWM process is utilised as the carrier of the signals transmitted between the remote-control centre and the slave nodes. Moreover, the proposed model involves a ‘request to send (RTS)/confirm to send (CTS)’ mechanism to avoid signal conflicts. Compared with the conventional power line communication (PLC) approach, the proposed transmission scheme has the advantages of simple circuit structure and simple system wiring. Additionally, a simulation model built in MATLAB/Simulink proves the designed transmission method has strong anti-noise ability.