Optimizing direct-modulated laser LiFi systems for hospital environments through simulation-driven analysis of BER, SNR, and Q-factor performance

Background Modern hospital environments require wireless communication systems that ensure electromagnetic interference (EMI) compliance, privacy, and high throughput for mission-critical applications, such as telemetry, medical imaging, and Electronic Health Record (EHR) synchronization. Traditional RF-based wireless systems are susceptible to EMI, limited spectrum availability, and security issues. Direct-Modulated Laser (DML)-based Light Fidelity (LiFi) offers a promising alternative by leveraging the visible spectrum for high-speed, interference-free communication in terms of intended optical emissions. Methods The optimized configuration achieves BER well below the commonly cited analytical reliability benchmark ( BER < 10 − 9 ), SNR ≈ 74.94 dB, and Q ≈ 18.84 at 25 m, under idealized detector-noise-limited assumptions. Launch powers ≥ +5 dBm are required beyond ~15 m, modulation indices of 0.8–1.0 yield higher Q across distances, narrow beam divergences (1–2 mrad) maintain stronger SNR, and receiver apertures of 4–6 mm provide a balance between light collection and noise. Results The optimized configuration achieves BER well below the analytical benchmark ( BER < 10 −9 ), SNR ≈ 74.94 dB, and Q ≈ 18.84 at 25 m, demonstrating a substantial analytical performance margin in a best-case, well-aligned line-of-sight configuration. Launch powers = +5 dBm are required beyond ~15 m, modulation indices of 0.8–1.0 yield higher Q across distances, narrow beam divergences (1–2 mrad) maintain stronger SNR, and receiver apertures of 4–6 mm provide a balance between light collection and noise. Conclusions This paper introduces a four-parameter DML-LiFi optimization framework tailored to hospital environments, which offers a theoretical explanation of link-budget feasibility and parameter sensitivity to idealized indoor environment. These results indicate an upper-bound performance study, and not a demonstration of deployment-ready reliability, and are meant to be used in future experimental and system-level studies that focus on mobility, line-of-sight blockage, ambient-light-induced shot noise, electromagnetic interference pickup, and eye-safety constraints in hospital settings.