Multiple-input multiple-output visible light communication receivers for high data-rate mobile applications

Visible light communication (VLC) is an emerging form of optical wireless communication that transmits data by modulating light in the visible spectrum. To meet the growing demand for wireless communication capacity from mobile devices, we investigate multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) VLC to achieve multiplexing capacity gains and to allow multiple users to simultaneously transmit without disrupting each other. Previous approaches to receive VLC signals have either been unable to simultaneously receive multiple independent signals from multiple transmitters, unable to adapt to moving transmitters and receivers, or unable to sample the received signals fast enough for high-speed VLC. In this dissertation, we develop and evaluate two novel approaches to receive high-speed MIMO VLC signals from mobile transmitters that can be practically scaled to support additional transmitters. The first approach, Token-Based Pixel Selection (TBPS) exploits the redundancy and sparsity of high-resolution transmitter images in imaging VLC receivers to greatly increase the rate at which complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) active pixel sensor (APS) image sensors can sample VLC signals though improved signal routing to enable such high-resolution image sensors to capture high-speed VLC signals. We further model the CMOS APS pixel as a linear shift-invariant system, investigate how it scales to support additional transmitters and higher resolutions, and investigate how noise can affect its performance. The second approach, a spatial light modulator (SLM)-based VLC receiver, uses an SLM to dynamically control the resulting wireless channel matrix to enable relatively few photodetectors to reliably receive from multiple transmitters despite their movements. As part of our analysis, we develop a MIMO VLC channel capacity model that accounts for the non-negativity and peak-power constraints of VLC systems to evaluate the performance of the SLM VLC receiver and to facilitate the optimization of the channel matrix through the SLM

High Speed Optical Wireless Communication Systems.

Visible light communication (VLC) systems have become promising candidates to complement conventional radio frequency (RF) systems due to the increasingly saturated RF spectrum and the potentially high data rates that can be achieved by VLC systems. Over the last decade, significant research efforts have been directed towards the development of VLC systems due to their numerous advantages over RF communication systems, such as the availability of simple transmitters (light emitting diodes, (LEDs)) and receivers (silicon photo detectors), better security at the physical layer, improved energy efficiency due to the dual functionally (i.e., illumination and communication) and hundreds of THz of license-free bandwidth. However, several challenges face VLC systems to achieve high data rates (multi gigabits per second). These challenges include the low modulation bandwidth of the LEDs, inter symbol interference (ISI) due to multipath propagation, co-channel interference (CCI) and the light unit (i.e., VLC transmitter) should be ‘‘ON’’ all the time to ensure continuous communication. This thesis investigates a number of techniques to design robust highspeed indoor VLC systems that support a single user and multi-users. Light engines composed of RYGB laser diodes (LDs) are used for communication and illumination. The main goal of using LDs is to enable the VLC system to achieve high data rates while using simple modulation techniques (such as on off keying (OOK)), which adds simplicity to VLC systems. Three VLC systems based on the computer generated holograms (CGHs) are proposed in this thesis, which are single beam static CGH-VLC system, static CGH-VLC system and adaptive CGH-VLC system. Whereas in the first and the second systems a single photodetector is used (added simplicity), an imaging receiver is used in the third one to obtain spatial multiplexing. We consider the lighting constraints where illumination should be at an acceptable level and should consider diffuse reflections (up to second order) to find the maximum data rate that can be offered by each system. In the first system, the CGH is used to produce one fixed broad beam from the best light unit and focus it to a specific area on the communication floor. In the second system, the CGH generates 100 beams (all these beams carry same data) from the best transmitter and directs these beams to an area of 2 m × 2 m on the communication floor. In the third system, the CGH is used to generate eight beams from the best transmitter and steer these beams to the receiver’s location. In addition, each one of these eight beams carries a different data stream. This thesis also presents an indoor VLC system in conjunction with an imaging receiver with parallel data transmission (spatial multiplexing) to reduce the effects of inter-symbol-interference (ISI). To distinguish between light units (transmitters) and to match the light units used (to convey the data) with the pixels of the imaging receiver, we proposed the use of subcarrier multiplexing (SCM) tones. Each light unit transmission is multiplexed with a unique tone. At the receiver, a SCM tone decision system is utilised to measure the power level of each SCM tone and consequently associate each pixel with a light unit. We proposed a high data rate single user VLC system based on wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) in this thesis. An imaging diversity receiver (IMDR) is used as an optical receiver. Based on the location of the IMDR, each colour of the RYGB LDs sends a different data stream at a different rate where the variable data rates are attributed mainly to the different power levels assigned to the colours to yield the desired white colour. Each pixel of the IMDR is covered by a specific colour optical filter. WDM in conjunction with the SCM tones are used to realise a high data rate multi-user VLC system in this thesis. The SCM tones are used to allocate an optimum transmitter to each user and to calculate the co-channel interference (CCI). Two novel optical receivers are used to evaluate the performance of the VLC systems: an array of non-imaging receivers (NI-R) and an array of non-imaging angle diversity receivers (NI-ADR). This thesis proposes a multi-branch transmitter (MBT) as a solution that can improve the VLC system performance over an indoor channel and support multi-user operation. The MBT has many transmitter branches (TBs) where each branch is directed to a specific area. By reducing the semi angle of each TB, the effect of multipath propagations is reduced and the received optical power is improved. The performance of the MBT is evaluated with a single user VLC system using a wide field of view (W-FOV) receiver and then with an angle diversity receiver (ADR). The results show that this system can provide a data rate of 4 Gb/s and 10 Gb/s when using wide FOV receiver and ADR, respectively. In addition, the performance of the MBT is evaluated in a multi-user scenario. We used the MBT with WDM and SCM tones to realise a high data rate multiuser indoor VLC system. Four colour laser diodes (RYGB LDs) are used as sources of illumination and data communication. One colour of these four colours is used to convey the SCM tones at the beginning of the connection to set up the connection. When the connection is set up, the data is transmitted in parallel through the RYGB LDs

Challenges and Opportunities of Optical Wireless Communication Technologies

In this chapter, we present various opportunities of using optical wireless communication (OWC) technologies in each sector of optical communication networks. Moreover, challenges of optical wireless network implementations are investigated. We characterized the optical wireless communication channel through the channel measurements and present different models for the OWC link performance evaluations. In addition, we present some technologies for the OWC performance enhancement in order to address the last-mile transmission bottleneck of the system efficiently. The technologies can be of great help in alleviating the stringent requirement by the cloud radio access network (C-RAN) backhaul/fronthaul as well as in the evolution toward an efficient backhaul/fronthaul for the 5G network. Furthermore, we present a proof-of-concept experiment in order to demonstrate and evaluate high capacity/flexible coherent PON and OWC links for different network configurations in the terrestrial links. To achieve this, we employ advanced modulation format and digital signal processing (DSP) techniques in the offline and real-time mode of the operation. The proposed configuration has the capability to support different applications, services, and multiple operators over a shared optical fiber infrastructure

Improved Visible Light Communication Receiver Performance by Leveraging the Spatial Dimension

In wireless communications systems, signals can be transmitted as time (temporal) or spatial variants across 3D space, and in both ways. However, using temporal variant communication channels in high-speed data transmission introduces inter-symbol interference (ISI) which makes the systems unreliable. On the other hand, spatial diversity in signal processing reduces the ISI and improves the system throughput or performance by allowing more signals from different spatial locations at the same time. Therefore, the spatial features or properties of visible light signals can be very useful in designing a reliable visible light communication (VLC) system with higher system throughput and making it more robust against ambient noise and interference. By allowing only the signals of interest, spatial separability in VLC can minimize the noise to a greater extent to improve signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) which can ensure higher data rates (in the order of Gbps-Tbps) in VLC. So, designing a VLC system with spatial diversity is an exciting area to explore and might set the foundation for future VLC system architectures and enable different VLC based applications such as vehicular VLC, multi-VLC, localization, and detection using VLC, etc. This thesis work is motivated by the fundamental challenges in reusing spatial information in VLC systems to increase the system throughput or gain through novel system designing and their prototype implementations

Interference Suppression in Massive MIMO VLC Systems

The focus of this dissertation is on the development and evaluation of methods and principles to mitigate interference in multiuser visible light communication (VLC) systems using several transmitters. All components of such a massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system are considered and transformed into a communication system model, while also paying particular attention to the hardware requirements of different modulation schemes. By analyzing all steps in the communication process, the inter-channel interference between users is identified as the most critical aspect. Several methods of suppressing this kind of interference, i.e. to split the MIMO channel into parallel single channels, are discussed, and a novel active LCD-based interference suppression principle at the receiver side is introduced as main aspect of this work. This technique enables a dynamic adaption of the physical channel: compared to solely software-based or static approaches, the LCD interference suppression filter achieves adaptive channel separation without altering the characteristics of the transmitter lights. This is especially advantageous in dual-use scenarios with illumination requirements. Additionally, external interferers, like natural light or transmitter light sources of neighboring cells in a multicell setting, can also be suppressed without requiring any control over them. Each user's LCD filter is placed in front of the corresponding photodetector and configured in such a way that only light from desired transmitters can reach the detector by setting only the appropriate pixels to transparent, while light from unwanted transmitters remains blocked. The effectiveness of this method is tested and benchmarked against zero-forcing (ZF) precoding in different scenarios and applications by numerical simulations and also verified experimentally in a large MIMO VLC testbed created specifically for this purpose

Employing VLC technology for transmitting data in biological tissue

Abstract. With the development in wireless communication methods, visible light communication (VLC), a subset of Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) has garnered much attention to employ the technology for a secure short-range wireless communication. We present a feasibility study to determine the performance of VLC in short range wireless transmission of data through biological tissue. VLC is a cost efficient and secure means of transmitting high volume of data wirelessly which can considerably reduce the interference issues caused by electromagnetic pulses and external electric fields. We present a simple measurement approach based on Monte Carlo simulation of photon propagation in tissue to estimate the strength of wireless communication with body implant devices. Using light for communication brings inherent security against unauthorized access of digital data which could be acquired from the low energy body implant devices used for medical diagnosis and other studies. This thesis discusses the typical components required to establish VLC such as, transmitter, receiver and the channel mediums. Furthermore, two cases of Monte Carlo simulation of photon-tissue interaction are studied to determine a possibility if VLC is a suitable substitute to radio frequency (RF) for a more wireless communication with the body implants. The process of theoretical measurement begins with conversion of light intensity into an electrical signal and an estimation of achievable data rate through a complex heterogeneous biological tissue model. The theoretically achieved data rates of the communication were found to be in the order of megabits per second (Mbps), ensuring a possibility to utilize this technology for short range reliable wireless communication with a wider range and application of implant medical devices. Biophotonics.fi presents a computational simulation of light propagation in different types of computational tissue models comprehensively validated by comparison with the team’s practical implementation of the same setup. This simulation is also used in this thesis (5.2.2) to approximate more accurate data rates of communication in case of a practical implementation