The invention discloses a communication method on the basis of rate adaptation in a visible light communication system. The communication method includes procedures of A1, data transmission preparation; A2, data rate identification; A3, data synchronization; and A4, data transmission. The communication method has the advantages that information can be adaptively transmitted by the visible light communication method; the information can be transmitted at variable rates by the visible light communication method; a CCD (charge coupled device) camera is used as receiving equipment, the sensitivity and the responsivity of the CCD camera are much higher than the sensitivity and the responsivity of a traditional PIN (positive-intrinsic-negative) photodiode, and the CCD camera used as a light detector can also be used in an APT (acquisition, pointing and tracking) system; and visible light (particularly white light) emitted by LEDs has spectral characteristics of broad-spectrum light, and has potential multi-path fading resistance as compared with narrow-spectrum light such as laser.