Optical Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access for Visible Light Communication

The proliferation of mobile Internet and connected devices, offering a variety of services at different levels of performance, represents a major challenge for the fifth generation wireless networks and beyond. This requires a paradigm shift towards the development of key enabling techniques for the next generation wireless networks. In this respect, visible light communication (VLC) has recently emerged as a new communication paradigm that is capable of providing ubiquitous connectivity by complementing radio frequency communications. One of the main challenges of VLC systems, however, is the low modulation bandwidth of the light-emitting-diodes, which is in the megahertz range. This article presents a promising technology, referred to as "optical- non-orthogonal multiple access (O-NOMA)", which is envisioned to address the key challenges in the next generation of wireless networks. We provide a detailed overview and analysis of the state-of-the-art integration of O-NOMA in VLC networks. Furthermore, we provide insights on the potential opportunities and challenges as well as some open research problems that are envisioned to pave the way for the future design and implementation of O-NOMA in VLC systems

Spatial and wavelength division multiplexing for high-speed VLC systems: An overview

White light emitting diodes (LEDs) are becoming the primary source of illumination for the home and office environment. These LEDs can be intensity modulated to transmit high-speed data via an optical carrier. As a result, there is a paradigm shift in indoor wireless communication as the illumination infrastructure can be reused for data communications. It is widely expected that visible light communication (VLC) system will play a significant role in realizing the high-speed data communication envisaged for 5G connectivity. The goal of VLC systems is to provide a reliable and ubiquitous communication link that is an order of magnitude faster than current radio frequency (RF) links. In order to support the high data rates required for the current and future generations of communication systems, a number of techniques were explored for VLC by a number of research groups worldwide. This paper provides an overview of spatial and wavelength division multiplexing that has enabled multi-Gb/s transmission speeds in VLC using low bandwidth LEDs