System design and performance analysis of asymmetrically and symmetrically clipped optical (ASCO)-OFDM for IM/DD optical wireless communications

As the quantity of mobile communication devices, such as cellphones, tablets, and laptops, dramatically increase, the demand for high speed wireless service has been growing. Optical wireless communications (OWCs), which offer unlimited transmission bandwidth, have received a lot of attention and been studied in recent decades. They can be an effective alternative to radio frequency communications (RFCs) for indoor high speed data transmission. Intensity modulation direct detection (IM/DD) is a simple way to realize the transmission of optical wireless signals in an indoor environment. Information data streams are modulated into the intensity of optical carriers and transmitted by light emitting diodes (LEDs). At the receiver, the instantaneous power of optical signals can be directly detected by photodiodes. Multipath distortion, especially in an indoor environment, caused by reflection from walls or furniture, severely affects the transmission quality of optical signals. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a promising modulation technique and has been widely used to combat inter-symbol-interference (ISI) resulting from multipath propagation in RFCs. So far, the technique of OFDM has also been successfully applied into IM/DD optical wireless systems. In this dissertation, the author focuses on the system design and performance analysis of a novel power-efficient scheme based on OFDM for IM/DD OWCs. This dissertation is divided into four main sections. In the first part, a novel power-efficient scheme, called asymmetrically and symmetrically clipped optical (ASCO)-OFDM, for intensity modulation direct detection (IM/DD) optical wireless systems is proposed. The average bit rate versus (vs.) normalized bandwidth and the optical power per bit of this novel scheme are expressed by a closed form, respectively. The symbol error rate (SER) performance is investigated when optical signals are transmitted in a flat fading channel. Simulation results show that this proposed scheme can achieve better performances in terms of both power efficiency and symbol error rate (SER) when the optical power of transmitted signals is limited. In the second part, an improved receiving technique is applied into the conventional receiver of ASCO-OFDM to improve the SER performance. This technique can explore and reuse some useful information hidden in the received signals. The detection procedure is described in detail and the improved SER performances are presented for different constellation cases. In the third part, the information rates of ADO-OFDM and ASCO-OFDM are obtained for an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel with an average transmitted optical power constraint. In the last part, this novel power efficient scheme, ASCO-OFDM, is extended into two-dimensional (2D) IM/DD optical wireless systems. The theoretical analysis and simulation results show that this technique not only achieves high average bit rate, but reduces the Peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) as well

Spectrum and energy efficient digital modulation techniques for practical visible light communication systems

The growth in mobile data traffic is rapidly increasing in an unsustainable direction given the radio frequency (RF) spectrum limits. Visible light communication (VLC) offers a lucrative solution based on an alternative license-free frequency band that is safe to use and inexpensive to utilize. Improving the spectral and energy efficiency of intensity modulation and direct detection (IM/DD) systems is still an on-going challenge in VLC. The energy efficiency of inherently unipolar modulation techniques such as pulse-amplitude modulation discrete multitone modulation (PAM-DMT) and asymmetrically clipped optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (ACO-OFDM) degrades at high spectral efficiency. Two novel superposition modulation techniques are proposed in this thesis based on PAM-DMT and ACO-OFDM. In addition, a practical solution based on the computationally efficient augmented spectral efficiency discrete multi-tone (ASE-DMT) is proposed. The system performance of the proposed superposition modulation techniques offers significant electrical and optical power savings with up to 8 dB in the electrical signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) when compared with DC-biased optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DCO-OFDM). The theoretical bit error ratio (BER) performance bounds for all of the proposed modulation techniques are in agreement with the Monte-Carlo simulation results. The proposed superposition modulation techniques are promising candidates for spectrum and energy efficient IM/DD systems. Two experimental studies are presented for a VLC system based on DCO-OFDM with adaptive bit and energy loading. Micrometer-sized Gallium Nitride light emitting diode (m-LED) and light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation diode (LD) are used in these studies due to their high modulation bandwidth. Record data rates are achieved with a BER below the forward error correction (FEC) threshold at 7.91 Gb/s using the violet m-LED and at 15 Gb/s using the blue LD. These results highlight the potential of VLC systems in practical high speed communication solutions. An additional experimental study is demonstrated for the proposed superposition modulation techniques based on ASE-DMT. The experimentally achieved results confirm the theoretical and simulation based performance predictions of ASE-DMT. A significant gain of up to 17.33 dB in SNR is demonstrated at a low direct current (DC) bias. Finally, the perception that VLC systems cannot work under the presence of sunlight is addressed in this thesis. A complete framework is presented to evaluate the performance of VLC systems in the presence of solar irradiance at any given location and time. The effect of sunlight is investigated in terms of the degradations in SNR, data rate and BER. A reliable high speed communication system is achieved under the sunlight effect. An optical bandpass blue filter is shown to compensate for half of the reduced data rate in the presence of sunlight. This thesis demonstrates data rates above 1 Gb/s for a practical VLC link under strong solar illuminance measured at 50350 lux in clear weather conditions

The Largest Unethical Medical Experiment in Human History

This monograph describes the largest unethical medical experiment in human history: the implementation and operation of non-ionizing non-visible EMF radiation (hereafter called wireless radiation) infrastructure for communications, surveillance, weaponry, and other applications. It is unethical because it violates the key ethical medical experiment requirement for “informed consent” by the overwhelming majority of the participants. The monograph provides background on unethical medical research/experimentation, and frames the implementation of wireless radiation within that context. The monograph then identifies a wide spectrum of adverse effects of wireless radiation as reported in the premier biomedical literature for over seven decades. Even though many of these reported adverse effects are extremely severe, the true extent of their severity has been grossly underestimated. Most of the reported laboratory experiments that produced these effects are not reflective of the real-life environment in which wireless radiation operates. Many experiments do not include pulsing and modulation of the carrier signal, and most do not account for synergistic effects of other toxic stimuli acting in concert with the wireless radiation. These two additions greatly exacerbate the severity of the adverse effects from wireless radiation, and their neglect in current (and past) experimentation results in substantial under-estimation of the breadth and severity of adverse effects to be expected in a real-life situation. This lack of credible safety testing, combined with depriving the public of the opportunity to provide informed consent, contextualizes the wireless radiation infrastructure operation as an unethical medical experiment