DC-Informative Joint Color-Frequency Modulation for Visible Light Communications

In this paper, we consider the problem of constellation design for a visible light communication (VLC) system using red/green/blue light-emitting diodes (RGB LED), and propose a method termed DC-informative joint color-frequency modulation (DCI-JCFM). This method jointly utilizes available diversity resources including different optical wavelengths, multiple baseband subcarriers, and adaptive DC-bias. Constellation is designed in a high dimensional space, where the compact sphere packing advantage over lower dimensional counterparts is utilized. Taking into account multiple practical illumination constraints, a non-convex optimization problem is formulated, seeking the least error rate with a fixed spectral efficiency. The proposed scheme is compared with a decoupled scheme, where constellation is designed separately for each LED. Notable gains for DCI-JCFM are observed through simulations where balanced, unbalanced and very unbalanced color illuminations are considered.Comment: submitted to Journal of Lightwave Technology, Aug. 5th 201

Multiuser MIMO-OFDM for visible light communications

Visible light communication (VLC) is emerging as a promising technique to provide ubiquitous wireless connection. In this paper, a multiuser VLC system utilizing multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) is investigated. Since the distances of the multiple transmitter-receiver links are different, their temporal delays are also different, resulting in complex channel gain and phase differences when transformed to the frequency domain. For each subcarrier in OFDM, the corresponding precoding matrix is calculated in the frequency domain to eliminate multiuser interference. Phase information in the frequency domain is first considered, where complex, instead of real, channel matrices are used for precoding, which reduces the channel correlation and achieves better performance. Moreover, minimum dc bias, unified dc bias, and asymmetrically clipped optical OFDM-based schemes are proposed to generate real-valued nonnegative signals for intensity modulation, and their performances are validated via simulations with zero forcing and minimum mean-squared error (MMSE) precoding techniques

Receiver Algorithms for Single-Carrier OSM Based High-Rate Indoor Visible Light Communications

In intensity-modulation and direct-detection (IM/DD) multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) visible light communication (VLC) systems, spatial subchannels are usually correlated, and spatial modulation is a good choice to achieve the advantages of MIMO technology. Peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) is a key issue in VLCs due to the limited linear dynamic range of light emitting diodes (LEDs). Single-carrier communication systems have a lower PAPR than orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication systems. However, it is challenging to design a single-carrier spatial modulation for high-rate transmissions because of the time domain intersymbol interference. This paper develops an optical spatial modulation (OSM) scheme based on bipolar pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) and spatial elements for high-rate indoor VLC systems. Multiple data streams can be transmitted simultaneously in the proposed scheme. Based on the transmit strategy, we develop a low-complexity receiver algorithm that achieves better bit-error rate performance than reference schemes, and the proposed OSM scheme has a much lower PAPR than OFDM based OSM schemes. When the spatial subchannels are highly correlated, a spatial area division strategy is applied, and the receiver algorithm is investigated. The symbol-error rate expression of the proposed OSM scheme is derived, and the computational complexity is analyzed

Multi-user MIMO-OFDM for indoor visible light communication systems

In this paper, we investigate an indoor multiuser visible light communication system employing multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM). For each subcarrier in OFDM, the corresponding precoding matrix is calculated in the frequency domain to eliminate multi-user interference. The distances of the multiple transmitter-receiver links are different, which results in various temporal delays and phase differences in the frequency domain. Phase information is firstly considered, whereby complex instead of real channel matrices are used for precoding, which reduces the channel correlation and achieves better performance. Moreover, two DC bias and scaling factor calculation schemes are proposed, and their performances are compared with zero forcing and minimum mean-squared error (MMSE) precoding techniques

Energy efficient visible light communications relying on amorphous cells

In this paper, we design an energy efficient indoor Visible Light Communications (VLC) system from a radically new perspective based on an amorphous user-to-network association structure. Explicitly, this intriguing problem is approached from three inter-linked perspectives, considering the cell formation, link-level transmission and system-level optimisation, critically appraising the related optical constraints. To elaborate, apart from proposing hitherto unexplored Amorphous Cells (A-Cells), we employ a powerful amalgam of Asymmetrically Clipped Optical Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (ACO-OFDM) and transmitter pre-coding aided Multi-Input Single-Output (MISO) transmission. As far as the overall systemlevel optimisation is concerned, we propose a low-complexity solution dispensing with the classic Dinkelbach’s algorithmic structure. Our numerical study compares a range of different cell formation strategies and investigates diverse design aspects of the proposed A-Cells. Specifically, our results show that the A-Cells proposed are capable of achieving a much higher energy efficiency per user compared to that of the conventional cell formation for a range of practical Field of Views (FoVs) angles

Physical Layer Techniques for Indoor Wireless Visible Light Communications

The growing demand for bandwidth-hungry applications and increasing number of smart interconnected devices has increased the data traffic on radio access networks. Subsequently, the saturating spectral efficiencies in crowded radio frequency spectrum has impelled the researchers to exploit the optical spectrum for communications. In particular, many developments in the visible light communication (VLC) as a combined lighting and communications system have taken place. Despite abundant optical bandwidth, the data transmission rates and power efficiencies in VLC are partly limited by the electrical channel bandwidth and the type of signalling sets which can be used in this intensity modulated, direct detected system. In order to improve the power and spectral efficiencies, this thesis focuses on physical layer (PHY) techniques. The state-of-the-art single channel modulations (SCM) based on M-PAM, multi-channel modulations (MCM) based on OFDM, and IEEE standardised multi-colour modulations are investigated comprehensively through simulations and theoretical analysis, over representative VLC channels considering the optical properties of front-end devices. The bit error performances and spectral efficiencies of DC-biased and non DC-biased MCM systems are compared. A new vector coding based MCM is proposed to optimally utilise the channel state information at the transmitter as an alternative to optical OFDM. The throughputs, peak-to-average power ratios and DC-bias requirements of SCM and MCM systems are investigated which show that the lower DC-bias requirements reduce power consumed for the same throughput in SCM systems when compared to MCM systems. A new quad-chromatic colour shift keying (CSK) system is proposed which reduces power requirements and complexity, enhances throughput and realises a four-dimensional signalling to outperform the IEEE standardised tri-chromatic CSK system. For improved power efficiency and throughput of VLC PHY, use of rate-adaptive binary convolutional coding and Viterbi decoding is proposed along with frequency domain channel equalisation to mitigate temporal dispersion over representative VLC channels