###### Abstract  
In the envisioned 6G internet of things (IoT), visible light communication (VLC) has emerged as one promising candidate to mitigate the frequency spectrum crisis. However, when working as the access point, VLC has to be connected with the backbone network via other wire communication solutions. Typically, power line communication (PLC) is viewed as an excellent match to VLC, which is capable of providing both a power supply and backbone network connection. Generally, the integration of PLC and VLC is taken into consideration for the above hybrid system for channel characteristics analysis. However, almost all current works focus on hybrid PLC and VLC, based on a conventional Lambertian optical beam configuration, and fail to address the applications of hybrid PLC and VLC based on distinct optical beam configurations. To address this issue, in this paper, the channel characteristics of hybrid PLC and VLC, based on distinct optical beam configurations, are explored and illustrated. Numerical results show that, for a central position of the receiver, compared with an achievable rate of about 194 Mbps for hybrid PLC and VLC with a baseline Lambertian optical beam configuration, the counterparts of a hybrid channel based on Rebel and NSPW optical beams are about 173.4 Mbps and 222.4 Mbps. Moreover, the effect of azimuth rotation is constructed and estimated for hybrid PLC and VLC, adopting a typical rotating asymmetric beam configuration. channel characteristics; power line communications; visible light communications; non-Lambertian optical beams; 6G mobile network; internet of things +
Footnote †: journal: Applied Sciences  
Up to now, many valuable explorations have been reported [15; 16; 17; 18; 19; 20; 21]. Specifically, the authors in [9] proposed an integrated PLC and VLC system, with bit division multiplexing (BDM), in order to outperform conventional approaches to time-frequency channel resource allocation. Moreover, the study in [10] considered a positioning-compatible multiservice transmission system based on the integration of VLC and PLC. For the sake of increasing the downlink bit rate, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) was invoked in a PLC-VLC network while one joint PLC-VLC power allocation (JPA) strategy was designed for achieving sum-throughput maximization in [11]. In addition, the authors in [12] proposed and demonstrated one hybrid broadband PLC and VLC system, with modulation of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, for indoor hospital applications, which provided one novel solution to replace or complement the legacy wireless communication systems in hospital scenarios. Excitingly, researchers have diligently introduced a series of design and optimization solutions for hybrid PLC and VLC systems, including, but not limited to, video broadband broadcasting [13; 14], discrete wavelet transformation [16], power allocation [17], multiuser access [18], random channel generation [19], channel measurement campaigns [20], and simplistic channel modeling [21]. Nevertheless, almost all of these hybrid PLC and VLC articles assume that the involved LED light emitters follow the well-known Lambertian spatial beam pattern [21; 22; 23; 24] and fail to address the potential applications of hybrid PLC and VLC based on distinct optical beam configurations. As a matter of fact, the distinct optical beam effects and the relevant performance gain possibilities have earned more and more attention in numerous branches of VLC technology research, which includes, but is not limited to, planning of cells, access point design, channel characterization, coordinated coverage, multiple-input/multiple-output transmission, and physical layer security. Based on the above discussion, it is essential to fill the apparent research gap in the optical beam configuration aspect of the current hybrid PLC and VLC works, to satisfy the actual needs of hybrid PLC and VLC applications with distinct optical beam configurations.