Spectrum-Efficient Triple-Layer Hybrid Optical OFDM for IM/DD-Based Optical Wireless Communications

In this paper, a triple-layer hybrid optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (THO-OFDM) for intensity modulation with direct detection (IM/DD) systems with a high spectral efficiency is proposed. We combine N-point asymmetrically clipped optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (ACO-OFDM), N/2-point ACO-OFDM, and N/2-point pulse amplitude modulated discrete multitoned (PAM-DMT) in a single frame for simultaneous transmission. The time- and frequency-domain demodulation methods are introduced by fully exploiting the special structure of the proposed THO-OFDM. Theoretical analysis show that, the proposed THO-OFDM can reach the spectral efficiency limit of the conventional layered ACO-OFDM (LACO-OFDM). Simulation results demonstrate that, the time-domain receiver offers improved bit error rate (BER) performance compared with the frequency-domain with ∼40% reduced computation complexity when using 512 subcarriers. Furthermore, we show a 3 dB improvement in the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) compared with LACO-OFDM for the same three layers

Low-Complexity Receiver for HACO-OFDM in Optical Wireless Communications

In this letter, a low-complexity receiver (Rx) is proposed for hybrid asymmetrically clipped optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (HACO-OFDM). Owing to the special time-domain property of HACO-OFDM, overlaid asymmetrically clipped OFDM (ACO-OFDM) and pulse-amplitude-modulated discrete multitoned (PAM-DMT) signals can be distinguished in the time domain to reduce its computational complexity. Besides, the near-optimal optical power allocation is further applied to optimize the proposed system performance. Theoretical analysis and simulation results demonstrate that, the proposed Rx can achieve nearly the same bit error rate (BER) performance as the BER-optimal iterative Rx but with an effective complexity reduction, thus demonstrating its application potential in high-speed optical communication systems