Visible Light Communication (VLC)

Visible light communication (VLC) using light-emitting diodes (LEDs) or laser diodes (LDs) has been envisioned as one of the key enabling technologies for 6G and Internet of Things (IoT) systems, owing to its appealing advantages, including abundant and unregulated spectrum resources, no electromagnetic interference (EMI) radiation and high security. However, despite its many advantages, VLC faces several technical challenges, such as the limited bandwidth and severe nonlinearity of opto-electronic devices, link blockage and user mobility. Therefore, significant efforts are needed from the global VLC community to develop VLC technology further. This Special Issue, “Visible Light Communication (VLC)”, provides an opportunity for global researchers to share their new ideas and cutting-edge techniques to address the above-mentioned challenges. The 16 papers published in this Special Issue represent the fascinating progress of VLC in various contexts, including general indoor and underwater scenarios, and the emerging application of machine learning/artificial intelligence (ML/AI) techniques in VLC

Peak to average power ratio reduction and error control in MIMO-OFDM HARQ System

Currently, multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMOOFDM) systems underlie crucial wireless communication systems such as commercial 4G and 5G networks, tactical communication, and interoperable Public Safety communications. However, one drawback arising from OFDM modulation is its resulting high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). This problem increases with an increase in the number of transmit antennas. In this work, a new hybrid PAPR reduction technique is proposed for space-time block coding (STBC) MIMO-OFDM systems that combine the coding capabilities to PAPR reduction methods, while leveraging the new degree of freedom provided by the presence of multiple transmit chairs (MIMO). In the first part, we presented an extensive literature review of PAPR reduction techniques for OFDM and MIMO-OFDM systems. The work developed a PAPR reduction technique taxonomy, and analyzed the motivations for reducing the PAPR in current communication systems, emphasizing two important motivations such as power savings and coverage gain. In the tax onomy presented here, we include a new category, namely, hybrid techniques. Additionally, we drew a conclusion regarding the importance of hybrid PAPR reduction techniques. In the second part, we studied the effect of forward error correction (FEC) codes on the PAPR for the coded OFDM (COFDM) system. We simulated and compared the CCDF of the PAPR and its relationship with the autocorrelation of the COFDM signal before the inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) block. This allows to conclude on the main characteristics of the codes that generate high peaks in the COFDM signal, and therefore, the optimal parameters in order to reduce PAPR. We emphasize our study in FEC codes as linear block codes, and convolutional codes. Finally, we proposed a new hybrid PAPR reduction technique for an STBC MIMO-OFDM system, in which the convolutional code is optimized to avoid PAPR degradation, which also combines successive suboptimal cross-antenna rotation and inversion (SS-CARI) and iterative modified companding and filtering schemes. The new method permits to obtain a significant net gain for the system, i.e., considerable PAPR reduction, bit error rate (BER) gain as compared to the basic MIMO-OFDM system, low complexity, and reduced spectral splatter. The new hybrid technique was extensively evaluated by simulation, and the complementary cumulative distribution function (CCDF), the BER, and the power spectral density (PSD) were compared to the original STBC MIMO-OFDM signal

Diversity techniques for broadband wireless communications: performance enhancement and analysis

The diversity techniques have been proven to be effective for next generation broadband wireless communications, and are the focus of this thesis. The diversity techniques can be broadly categorized into three types: Space, Time, and Frequency. In this thesis, we are mainly concerned with frequency and space diversity techniques. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a frequency diversity technique which offers several benefits such as easier digital implementation, immunity to multipath channels, low complexity channel equalization, etc. Despite these desirable features, there are few inherent problems in OFDM such as high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). High PAPR demands large dynamic range in the transmitted chain such as digital to analog converter (DAC) and power amplifier (PA). Unless pre-processed, the transmitted signal gets distorted due to quantization errors and inter-modulation. In the initial stage of PhD candidature, the author focused on PAPR reduction techniques. A simple modification on conventional iterative clipping and filtering (ICF) technique was proposed which has less computational complexity. The power savings achievable from clipping and filtering method was considered next. Furthermore the ICF is compared with another distortion-less PAPR reduction technique called Selective Mapping (SLM) based on power savings. Finally, impact of clipping and filtering on the channel estimation was analyzed. Space diversity seeks to exploit the multi-path characteristics of wireless channels to improve the performance. The simplest form of the space diversity is the receive diversity where two or more antennas with sufficient spacing collect independent copies of the same transmitted signal, which contributes to better signal reception. In this thesis new analytical expressions for spectral efficiency, capacity, and error rates were presented for adaptive systems with channel estimation error. Beamforming (steering signal towards desired receiver) is another useful technique in multiple-antenna systems to further improve the system performance. MRT (Maximal Ratio Transmission) or MIMO-MRC is such system where the transmitter, based on channel feedback from the receiver, uses weighting factors to steer the transmitted signal. Closed form expressions for symbol error rates were derived for MRT system with channel estimation error. The results were extended to evaluate closed form expressions of error rates for Rectangular QAM. Antenna correlation was considered in another contribution on MRC systems. Relay and Cooperative networks represent another form of spatial diversity and have recently attracted significant research attention. These networks rely on intermediate nodes called "relays" to establish communication between the source and the destination. In addition to coverage extension, the relay networks have shown to offer cooperative diversity when there is a direct link or multiple relays. The first contribution is to analyze a dual-hop amplify-forward relay networks with dissimilar fading scenarios. Next error rates of Rectangular QAM for decode-forward selection relay system are derived. Multiple antenna at relay is included to analyze the benefits of dual spatial diversity over Rayleigh and Nakagami fading channels. Antenna selection is a cost-effective way to exploit the antenna diversity. General Order Antenna Selection (GOAS), based on Ordered Statistics, is used to evaluate signal statistics for a MIMO relay network

PAPR Reduction Solutions for 5G and Beyond

The latest fifth generation (5G) wireless technology provides improved communication quality compared to earlier generations. The 5G New Radio (NR), specified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), addresses the modern requirements of the wireless networks and targets improved communication quality in terms of for example peak data rates, latency and reliability. On the other hand, there are still various crucial issues that impact the implementation and energy-efficiency of 5G NR networks and their different deployments. The power-efficiency of transmitter power amplifiers (PAs) is one of these issues. The PA is an important unit of a communication system, which is responsible from amplifying the transmit signal towards the antenna. Reaching high PA power-efficiency is known to be difficult when the transmit waveform has a high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). The cyclic prefix (CP)-orthogonal frequencydivision multiplexing (OFDM) that is the main physical-layer waveform of 5G NR, suffers from such high PAPR challenge. There are generally many PAPR reduction methods proposed in the literature, however, many of these have either very notable computational complexity or impose substantial inband distortion. Moreover, 5G NR has new features that require redesigning the PAPR reduction methods. In line with these, the first contribution of this thesis is the novel frequencyselective PAPR reduction concept, where clipping noise is shaped in a frequencyselective manner over the active passband. This concept is in line with the 5G NR, where aggressive frequency-domain multiplexing is considered as an important feature. Utilizing the frequency-selective PAPR reduction enables the realization of the heterogeneous resource utilization within one passband. The second contribution of this thesis is the frequency-selective single-numerology (SN) and mixed-numerology (MN) PAPR reduction methods. The 5G NR targets utilizing different physical resource blocks (PRBs) and bandwidth parts (BWPs) within one passband flexibly. Yet, existing PAPR reduction methods do not exploit these features. Based on this, novel algorithms utilizing PRB and BWP level control of clipping noise are designed to meet error vector magnitude (EVM) limits of the modulations while reducing the PAPR. TheMNallocation has one critical challenge as inter numerology interference (INI) emerges after aggregation of subband signals. Proposed MN PAPR reduction algorithm overcomes this issue by cancelling INI within the PAPR reduction loop, which has not been considered earlier. The third contribution of this thesis is the proposal of two novel non-iterative PAPR reduction methods. First method utilizes the fast-convolution filteredOFDM (FC-F-OFDM) that has excellent spectral containment, and combines it with clipping. Moreover, clipping noise is also allocated to guard bands by filter passband extension (FPE) and clipping noise in out-of-band (OOB) regions is essentially filtered through FC filtering. The second method is the guard-tone reservation (GTR) which is applied to discrete Fourier transform-spread-OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM). Uniquely, GTR estimates the time domain peaks in data symbol domain before inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT), and uses guard band tones for PAPR reduction. The fourth contribution of the thesis is the design of two novel machine learning (ML) algorithms that improve the drawbacks of frequency-selective PAPRreduction. The first ML algorithm, PAPRer, models the nonlinear relation between the PAPR target and the realized PAPR value. Then, it auto-tunes the optimal PAPR target and this way minimizes the realized PAPR. The second ML algorithm, one-shot clipping-and-filtering (OSCF), solves the complexity problem of iterative clipping and filtering (ICF)-like methods by generating proper approximated clipping noise signal after running only one iteration, leading to very efficient PAPR reduction. Finally, an over-arching contribution of this thesis is the experimental validation of the performance benefits of the proposed methods by considering realistic 5GNR uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) testbeds that include realistic PAs and associated hardware. It is very important to confirm the practical benefits of the proposed methods and, this is realized with the conducted experimental work

Optical Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed communication systems: analysis, design and optimization

En este trabajo se realiza una intensiva labor teórica de descripción de sistemas de comunicaciones ópticas que utilizan la técnica de multiplexación por división de frecuencias ortogonales (OFDM en inglés), más concretamente en sistemas con modulación directa de la intensidad de un láser y detección directa. Se parte pues de un modelo analítico que estudia con detalle todos aquellos fenómenos que afectan a la señal de información detectada en el receptor. Tales fenómenos son: la nolinealidad del láser, las modulaciones de intensidad y de fase ópticas, la propagación a través de la fibra óptica teniendo en cuenta la dispersión cromática de primer orden, y la detección de intensidad óptica final mediante un detector de ley cuadrática. El modelo analítico es validado mediante comparaciones con resultados obtenidos a través de simulaciones con software comercial. Dada la característica singularidad de las señales OFDM debidas a su naturaleza multi-portadora, la amplitud de la señal generada es aleatoria, y el modelo analítico es complementado con un estudio que contempla el recorte o "clipping" en el transmisor. Además, se tiene en cuenta los efectos de filtrado de la señal a lo largo de sistema de comunicaciones. Con el trabajo analítico realizado se está en disposición de realizar una descripción bastante completa de los principales fenómenos y realizar estudios para evaluar el funcionamiento final ante diferentes valores de los parámetros del sistema. Es bien sabido que los sistemas de comunicaciones ópticas con modulación y detección directa se ven perjudicados por la distorsión no lineal, que para señales multi-portadora como OFDM se traduce en la mezcla de los símbolos de información que transportan las diferentes subportadoras. Para mitigar la distorsión no lineal y así mejorar el funcionamiento del sistema, se propone el uso de una técnica de pre-distorsión que se basa en el modelo analítico previamente propuesto. Esta técnica mejora la eficiencia de modulación, haciendo posible incrementar el término de la señal de información sin que se vea incrementada la distorsión no lineal en el receptor. La técnica aquí propuesta se compara también con otra ya publicada con el objetivo de evaluar su funcionamiento. Otra técnica para la mejora de sistemas con modulación y detección directas es la realizada mediante filtrado óptico. Aunque se conoce de forma más o menos intuitiva su funcionamiento para formatos de modulación ópticos tradicionales, es preciso disponer de una formulación matemática para señales ópticas OFDM para entender de forma exacta su principio de operación, las mejoras obtenidas, así como su potencial. En esta estapa se realiza esta formulación matemática ampliando el análisis teórico previamente propuesto, y se aplica para evaluar el funcionamiento obtenido con diversas estructuras de filtrado óptico. Finalmente, puesto que un potencial escenario de funcionamiento para señales ópticas OFDM son las redes de acceso donde operan más de un usuario, se propone y se estudia la técnica "interleaving division multiple access" (IDMA) en combinación con OFDM.Sánchez Costa, C. (2014). Optical Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed communication systems: analysis, design and optimization [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/39375TESI

Coherent Optical OFDM Modem Employing Artificial Neural Networks for Dispersion and Nonlinearity Compensation in a Long-Haul Transmission System

In order to satisfy the ever increasing demand for the bandwidth requirement in broadband services the optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OOFDM) scheme is being considered as a promising technique for future high-capacity optical networks. The aim of this thesis is to investigate, theoretically, the feasibility of implementing the coherent optical OFDM (CO-OOFDM) technique in long haul transmission networks. For CO-OOFDM and Fast-OFDM systems a set of modulation formats dependent analogue to digital converter (ADC) clipping ratio and the quantization bit have been identified, moreover, CO-OOFDM is more resilient to the chromatic dispersion (CD) when compared to the bandwidth efficient Fast-OFDM scheme. For CO-OOFDM systems numerical simulations are undertaken to investigate the effect of the number of sub-carriers, the cyclic prefix (CP), and ADC associated parameters such as the sampling speed, the clipping ratio, and the quantisation bit on the system performance over single mode fibre (SMF) links for data rates up to 80 Gb/s. The use of a large number of sub-carriers is more effective in combating the fibre CD compared to employing a long CP. Moreover, in the presence of fibre non-linearities identifying the optimum number of sub-carriers is a crucial factor in determining the modem performance. For a range of signal data rates up to 40 Gb/s, a set of data rate and transmission distance-dependent optimum ADC parameters are identified in this work. These parameters give rise to a negligible clipping and quantisation noise, moreover, ADC sampling speed can increase the dispersion tolerance while transmitting over SMF links. In addition, simulation results show that the use of adaptive modulation schemes improves the spectrum usage efficiency, thus resulting in higher tolerance to the CD when compared to the case where identical modulation formats are adopted across all sub-carriers. For a given transmission distance utilizing an artificial neural networks (ANN) equalizer improves the system bit error rate (BER) performance by a factor of 50% and 70%, respectively when considering SMF firstly CD and secondly nonlinear effects with CD. Moreover, for a fixed BER of 10-3 utilizing ANN increases the transmission distance by 1.87 times and 2 times, respectively while considering SMF CD and nonlinear effects. The proposed ANN equalizer performs more efficiently in combating SMF non-linearities than the previously published Kerr nonlinearity electrical compensation technique by a factor of 7