The Bit Error Performance and Information Transfer Rate of SPAD Array Optical Receivers

In this paper the photon counting characteristics, the information rate and the bit error performance of single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) arrays are investigated. It is shown that for sufficiently large arrays, the photocount distribution is well approximated by a Gaussian distribution with dead-time-dependent mean and variance. Because of dead time, the SPAD array channel is subject to counting losses, part of which are due to inter-slot interference (ISI) distortions. Consequently, this channel has memory. The information rate of this channel is assessed. Two auxiliary discrete memoryless channels (DMCs) are proposed which provide upper and lower bounds on the SPAD array information rate. It is shown that in sufficiently large arrays, ISI is negligible and the bounds are tight. Under such conditions, the SPAD array channel is precisely modelled as a memoryless channel. A discrete-time Gaussian channel with input-dependent mean and variance is adopted and the properties of the capacity-achieving input distributions are studied. Using a numerical algorithm, the information rate and the capacity-achieving input distributions, subject to peak and average power constraints are obtained. Furthermore, the bit error performance of a SPAD-based system with on-off keying (OOK) is evaluated for various array sizes, dead times and background count levels

Heterogeneous integration of optical wireless communications within next generation networks

Unprecedented traffic growth is expected in future wireless networks and new technologies will be needed to satisfy demand. Optical wireless (OW) communication offers vast unused spectrum and high area spectral efficiency. In this work, optical cells are envisioned as supplementary access points within heterogeneous RF/OW networks. These networks opportunistically offload traffic to optical cells while utilizing the RF cell for highly mobile devices and devices that lack a reliable OW connection. Visible light communication (VLC) is considered as a potential OW technology due to the increasing adoption of solid state lighting for indoor illumination. Results of this work focus on a full system view of RF/OW HetNets with three primary areas of analysis. First, the need for network densication beyond current RF small cell implementations is evaluated. A media independent model is developed and results are presented that provide motivation for the adoption of hyper dense small cells as complementary components within multi-tier networks. Next, the relationships between RF and OW constraints and link characterization parameters are evaluated in order to define methods for fair comparison when user-centric channel selection criteria are used. RF and OW noise and interference characterization techniques are compared and common OW characterization models are demonstrated to show errors in excess of 100x when dominant interferers are present. Finally, dynamic characteristics of hyper dense OW networks are investigated in order to optimize traffic distribution from a network-centric perspective. A Kalman Filter model is presented to predict device motion for improved channel selection and a novel OW range expansion technique is presented that dynamically alters coverage regions of OW cells by 50%. In addition to analytical results, the dissertation describes two tools that have been created for evaluation of RF/OW HetNets. A communication and lighting simulation toolkit has been developed for modeling and evaluation of environments with VLC-enabled luminaires. The toolkit enhances an iterative site based impulse response simulator model to utilize GPU acceleration and achieves 10x speedup over the previous model. A software defined testbed for OW has also been proposed and applied. The testbed implements a VLC link and a heterogeneous RF/VLC connection that demonstrates the RF/OW HetNet concept as proof of concept

Resource allocation for 5G technologies under statistical queueing constraints

As the launch of fifth generation (5G) wireless networks is approaching, recent years have witnessed comprehensive discussions about a possible 5G standard. Many transmission scenarios and technologies have been proposed and initial over-the-air experimental trials have been conducted. Most of the existing literature studies on 5G technologies have mainly focused on the physical layer parameters and quality of service (QoS) requirements, e.g., achievable data rates. However, the demand for delay-sensitive data traffic over wireless networks has increased exponentially in the recent years, and is expected to further increase by the time of 5G. Therefore, other constraints at the data-link layer concerning the buffer overflow and delay violation probabilities should also be regarded. It follows that evaluating the performance of the 5G technologies when such constraints are considered is a timely task. Motivated by this fact, in this thesis we explore the performance of three promising 5G technologies when operating under certain QoS at the data-link layer. We follow a cross-layer approach to examine the interplay between the physical and data-link layers when statistical QoS constraints are inflicted in the form of limits on the delay violation and buffer overflow probabilities. Noting that wireless systems, generally, have limited physical resources, in this thesis we mainly target designing adaptive resource allocation schemes to maximize the system performance under such QoS constraints. We initially investigate the throughput and energy efficiency of a general class of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with arbitrary inputs. As a cross-layer evaluation tool, we employ the effective capacity as the main performance metric, which is the maximum constant data arrival rate at a buffer that can be sustained by the channel service process under specified QoS constraints. We obtain the optimal input covariance matrix that maximizes the effective capacity under a short-term average power budget. Then, we perform an asymptotic analysis of the effective capacity in the low signal-to-noise ratio and large-scale antenna (massive MIMO) regimes. Such analysis has a practical importance for 5G scenarios that necessitate low latency, low power consumption, and/or ability to simultaneously support massive number of users. Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has attracted significant attention in the recent years as a promising multiple access technology for 5G. In this thesis, we consider a two-user power-domain NOMA scheme in which both transmitters employ superposition coding and the receiver applies successive interference cancellation (SIC) with a certain order. For practical concerns, we consider limited transmission power budgets at the transmitters, and assume that both transmitters have arbitrarily distributed input signals. We again exploit the effective capacity as the main cross-layer performance measure. We provide a resource management scheme that can jointly obtain the optimal power allocation policies at the transmitters and the optimal decoding order at the receiver, with the goal of maximizing the effective capacity region that provides the maximum allowable sustainable arrival rate region at the transmitters' buffers under QoS guarantees. In the recent years, visible light communication (VLC) has emerged as a potential transmission technology that can utilize the visible light spectrum for data transmission along with illumination. Different from the existing literature studies on VLC, in this thesis we consider a VLC system in which the access point (AP) is unaware of the channel conditions, thus the AP sends the data at a fixed rate. Under this assumption, and considering an ON-OFF data source, we provide a cross-layer study when the system is subject to statistical buffering constraints. To this end, we employ the maximum average data arrival rate at the AP buffer and the non-asymptotic bounds on buffering delay as the main performance measures. To facilitate our analysis, we adopt a two-state Markov process to model the fixed-rate transmission strategy, and we then formulate the steady-state probabilities of the channel being in the ON and OFF states. The coexistence of radio frequency (RF) and VLC systems in typical indoor environments can be leveraged to support vast user QoS needs. In this thesis, we examine the benefits of employing both technologies when operating under statistical buffering limitations. Particularly, we consider a multi-mechanism scenario that utilizes RF and VLC links for data transmission in an indoor environment. As the transmission technology is the main physical resource to be concerned in this part, we propose a link selection process through which the transmitter sends data over the link that sustains the desired QoS guarantees the most. Considering an ON-OFF data source, we employ the maximum average data arrival rate at the transmitter buffer and the non-asymptotic bounds on data buffering delay as the main performance measures. We formulate the performance measures under the assumption that both links are subject to average and peak power constraints

Capacity of and coding for multiple-aperture, wireless, optical communications

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2003.Includes bibliographical references (p. 243-249).This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Refractive index turbulence causes random power fluctuations in optical communication systems, making communication through the atmosphere difficult. This same phenomenon makes the stars twinkle at night, and pavement shimmer on a hot summer day. True to the old adage, "don't put all your eggs in one basket," we examine laser communication systems that use multiple transmit and receive apertures. These apertures provide redundant replicas of the transmitted message to the receiver, each corrupted separately by the atmosphere. Reliable communication occurs when not all of these paths are deeply faded. We quantify the maximum rate of reliable communication, or capacity, and study space-time coding techniques for both direct- and coherent-detection receivers. We also experimentally verify the performance of some simple techniques for optically-preamplified, direct-detection receivers.by Shane M. Haas.Ph.D

Capacity of and Coding for Multiple-Aperture, Wireless, Optical Communications

Thesis Supervisor: Jeffrey H. Shapiro Title: Julius A. Stratton Professor of Electrical EngineeringRefractive index turbulence causes random power fluctuations in optical communication systems, making communication through the atmosphere diffcult. This same phenomenon makes the stars twinkle at night, and pavement shimmer on a hot sum- mer day. True to the old adage, "don't put all your eggs in one basket," we examine laser communication systems that use multiple transmit and receive apertures. These apertures provide redundant replicas of the transmitted message to the receiver, each corrupted separately by the atmosphere. Reliable communication occurs when not all of these paths are deeply faded. We quantify the maximum rate of reliable communication, or capacity, and study space-time coding techniques for both direct- and coherent-detection receivers. We also experimentally verify the performance of some simple techniques for optically-preamplified, direct-detection receivers.Defense Advanced Research Projects Agenc

Real-Time Dispersion Code Multiple Access (DCMA) for High-Speed Wireless Communications

We model, demonstrate and characterize Dispersion Code Multiple Access (DCMA) and hence show the applicability of this purely analog and real-time multiple access scheme to high-speed wireless communications. We first mathematically describe DCMA and show the appropriateness of Chebyshev dispersion coding in this technology. We next provide an experimental proof-of-concept in a 2 X 2 DCMA system. Finally,we statistically characterize DCMA in terms of bandwidth, dispersive group delay swing, system dimension and signal-to-noise ratio

Information Transmission using the Nonlinear Fourier Transform, Part III: Spectrum Modulation

Motivated by the looming "capacity crunch" in fiber-optic networks, information transmission over such systems is revisited. Among numerous distortions, inter-channel interference in multiuser wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) is identified as the seemingly intractable factor limiting the achievable rate at high launch power. However, this distortion and similar ones arising from nonlinearity are primarily due to the use of methods suited for linear systems, namely WDM and linear pulse-train transmission, for the nonlinear optical channel. Exploiting the integrability of the nonlinear Schr\"odinger (NLS) equation, a nonlinear frequency-division multiplexing (NFDM) scheme is presented, which directly modulates non-interacting signal degrees-of-freedom under NLS propagation. The main distinction between this and previous methods is that NFDM is able to cope with the nonlinearity, and thus, as the the signal power or transmission distance is increased, the new method does not suffer from the deterministic cross-talk between signal components which has degraded the performance of previous approaches. In this paper, emphasis is placed on modulation of the discrete component of the nonlinear Fourier transform of the signal and some simple examples of achievable spectral efficiencies are provided.Comment: Updated version of IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. 60, no. 7, pp. 4346--4369, July, 201