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This paper studies the capacity of the two-user intensity-modulation/direct-detection (IM/DD) interference channel (IC), which is relevant in the context of multi-user optical wireless communications. Despite some known single-letter capacity characterizations for general discrete-memoryless ICs, a computable capacity expression for the IM/DD IC is missing. In this paper, we provide tight and easily computable inner and outer bounds for a general two-user IM/DD IC under peak and average optical intensity constraints. The bounds enable characterizing the asymptotic sum-rate capacity in the strong and weak interference regimes, as well as the generalized degrees of freedom (GDoF) in the symmetric case. Using the obtained bounds, the GDoF of the IM/DD IC is shown to have a ‘W’ shape similar to the Gaussian IC with power constraints. The obtained bounds are also evaluated numerically in different interference regimes to show their tightness, and used to study the performance of on-chip and indoor OWC systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visible light communication (VLC) is a versatile enabling technology for following high-speed wireless communication because of its broad unlicensed spectrum. In this perspective, white light-emitting diodes (LED) provide both illumination and data transmission simultaneously. To accomplish a VLC system, receiver antennas play a crucial role in receiving light signals and guiding them toward a photodetector to be converted into electrical signals. This paper demonstrates an optical receiver antenna based on luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) technology to exceed the conservation of etendue and reach a high signal-to-noise ratio. This optical antenna is compatible with all colors of LEDs and achieves an optical efficiency of 3.75%, which is considerably higher than the similar reported antenna. This antenna is fast due to the small attached photodetector—small enough that it can be adapted for electronic devices—which does not need any tracking system. Moreover, numerical simulation is performed using a Monte Carlo ray-tracing model, and results are extracted in the spectral domain. Finally, the fate of each photon and the chromaticity diagram of the collected photons' spectra are specified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the effects of sunlight on using a low-cost off-the-shelf silicon solar panel as an optical wireless communication (OWC) receiver. A receiver circuit structure has been proposed to maximize simultaneous energy harvesting and data communication performance. An equivalent circuit model of the solar panel for simultaneous energy harvesting and wireless optical communication is discussed. By using the solar panel model, the effects of varying sunlight conditions on the performance of the model as an OWC receiver are estimated. Furthermore, an experimental setup is developed to study the effects and verify the simulated estimations. The experimental setup consists of a 3.5 m wireless optical link with a full Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) network stack. The system uses DC-biased optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DCO-OFDM) to use the available communication bandwidth efficiently. A 940 nm low-cost off-the-shelf laser device along with an off-the-shelf off-axis-parabolic mirror is used as the transmitter. The maximum user throughput achieved over the air is 28.3 Mb/s while simultaneously harvesting energy using the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) technique. The peak power harvested with simultaneous communication is 4.5 W. The harvested energy is stored in a 38 Wh lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The atmospheric foggy condition is a major bottleneck for the deployment of optical wireless communication (OWC) systems in outdoor environments. Although the attenuation coefficient in the foggy channel follows the simple Gamma distribution, the distribution of its channel state is quite complicated similar to the well-studied Gamma–Gamma turbulence channel. Furthermore, existing literature suggested schemes that require feedback of the channel state information (CSI) to improve the outage performance of the OWC system under foggy conditions. In this article, we study the average signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), ergodic rate, and energy consumption performance of OWC systems under foggy conditions. First, we show that a single-aperture OWC system suffers significantly from the fog attenuation by deriving analytical expressions on the ergodic rate and energy consumption. Then, we consider a multiaperture OWC system equipped with an opportunistic receiver beam selection (RBS) scheme. The RBS scheme is based on the simple selection combining diversity algorithm, which does not require the knowledge of CSI. We analyze the proposed scheme by deriving computable bounds on the average SNR, ergodic rate, and energy consumption using system parameters and show the performance improvement of the RBS scheme comparing the single-aperture system. We demonstrate the performance of the considered scheme and validate derived expressions using computer simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In optical wireless communication (OWC), conventional superimposed optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OOFDM) techniques, such as hybrid asymmetrically clipped OOFDM (HACO-OFDM), require an additional operation of interference cancellation to decode transmitted symbols, which leads to relatively high receiver complexity with processing delay. In this letter, we propose a novel superimposed OOFDM scheme with low-complexity receiver, named as interference-free hybrid OOFDM (IFHO-OFDM), for OWC. In the proposed IFHO-OFDM, two hybrid OOFDM components are combined for simultaneous transmission to achieve the appealing advantages of high spectral efficiency, and a time-selective bias is designed to guarantee the non-negativity while maintaining high power efficiency. Moreover, we propose to superimpose the two hybrid OOFDM components in an interference-free way, and thus, it can be readily demodulated by a standard low-complexity OFDM receiver. Simulation results verified the superiority of the proposed IFHO-OFDM in terms of both peak-to-average-power ratio (PAPR) and bit error rate (BER) compared to HACO-OFDM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider a latency tolerant $2 \times n_{r}$ free space optical multiple-input multiple-output (FSO-MIMO) communication with a time diversity order of two. For this configuration, we propose an extended golden light code (E-GLC) construction that encodes data over two independent optical MIMO channel realizations. The main objective of this code construction is to jointly extract the spatial and the temporal diversity while keeping a multiplexing gain of two symbols per channel use. The proposed coding scheme is compliant with the optical intensity modulation and direct detection constraints that restrict the laser outputs to positive magnitude values with peak and average constraints. The error rate performance evaluations show that the E-GLC outperforms the other known replication-based schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the extremely large path loss of non-line of sight optical wireless communication, the received signal exhibits the characteristics of discrete photoelectrons. In this paper, we investigate the achievable rates and signal detection of on-off keying modulation for discrete-time Poisson multiple access channel. Both non-orthogonal multiple access and code division multiple access are considered, for both single-rate and multi-rate multiple access channels. Maximum likelihood (ML) detections are adopted as the optimal criterion for signal detection, whose complexity grows exponentially with the number of users. Low computational complexity detections are proposed with $\mathcal {M}$ -order correction that can perform closely to the ML detection. Numerical and simulation results are presented to show the achievable rate regions, optimal power allocations, the performance of ML, and proposed low-complexity detections. Finally, the experimental results of the proposed detection approaches agree with the simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a space time code construction with a symbol rate of two for free space optical multiple input multiple output (FSO-MIMO) communication systems. Unlike the radio-frequency space time coding design that deals with complex symbols holding phase and magnitude information, the phase detection in wireless optical communications remains very challenging. This restricts optical MIMO codes to carry positive magnitude information belonging to a finite range. To meet these requirements, we propose to design the FSO-MIMO codes considering first the whole real space \mathbb R , followed by a bipolar to unipolar conversion to fit in the intensity margin. We consider the MIMO configurations with two or four transmitters (lasers). We base our shape-preserving construction on quadratic extension fields that linearly combine the real symbols to form a full diversity space time code with a symbol rate equal to two. For each configuration, we show how to optimize the choice of the algebraic field numbers to jointly optimize the non-vanishing code determinant and the bipolar to unipolar attenuation factor. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Layered asymmetrically clipped optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (LACO-OFDM) is recently proposed for intensity-modulated directed-detected optical wireless communications, which achieves higher spectral efficiency compared with the conventional ACO-OFDM, since different layers of ACO-OFDM signals are combined to utilize more subcarriers. In this letter, an improved receiver is proposed for LACO-OFDM, which distinguishes different layers of ACO-OFDM signals in the time domain. After that, the structure of ACO-OFDM signals in each layer is exploited to further reduce the noise and inter-layer interference, resulting in the improved performance. Simulation results show that the proposed receiver for LACO-OFDM achieves significant gain over its conventional counterpart. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Pulse-amplitude-modulated discrete multitone (PAM-DMT) modulation is an optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing scheme, which is compatible with intensity modulation and direct detection channel. In the conventional receiver for PAM-DMT, only the imaginary parts of subcarriers are detected, while the real parts are considered as clipping noise and simply discarded, causing insufficient usage of the received power. This letter proposes a new receiver characterizing temporal and spectral diversity combining for PAM-DMT, which extracts the effective information in clipping noise to recover the data. The proposed receiver achieves a better performance than the conventional receiver with a gain of at least 2.3 dB in Eb/{N0} at the system bit error rate of 10^-5 in additive white Gaussian noise channel by simulation when using 4-PAM modulation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To guarantee nonnegative signals in optical wireless communication systems, flipped orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (Flip-OFDM) transmits the positive and negative parts of the signal over two consecutive OFDM subframes (positive subframe and negative subfame, respectively). The conventional receiver for Flip-OFDM recovers the data by subtracting the negative subframe from the positive one. However, the signal analysis shows that the signals in the two subframes contain the information of the transmitted data and can be used together to decode the data. An iterative receiver is then proposed to improve the transmission performance of Flip-OFDM by exploiting the signals in both subframes. Simulation results show that the proposed iterative receiver provides significant signal-to-noise ratio gain over the conventional receiver. Moreover, the iterative receiver also outperforms the existing advanced receiver. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a novel design of an optical wireless communications (OWC) receiver using a solar panel as a photodetector. The proposed system is capable of simultaneous data transmission and energy harvesting. The solar panel can convert a modulated light signal into an electrical signal without any external power requirements. Furthermore, the direct current (DC) component of the modulated light can be harvested in the proposed receiver. The generated energy can potentially be used to power a user terminal or at least to prolong its operation time. The current work discusses the various parameters which need to be considered in the design of a system using a solar panel for simultaneous communication and energy harvesting. The presented theory is supported with an experimental implementation of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), thus, proving the validity of the analysis and demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed receiver. Using the propounded system, a communication link with a data rate of 11.84 Mbps is established for a received optical signal with a peak-to-peak amplitude of \0.7\times \10^-3\ \W/\cm^2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the conventional receiver for pulse-amplitude-modulated discrete multitone (PAM-DMT), the real parts of the subcarriers are distorted by the clipping noise and ignored in detection. In this letter, the signal analysis shows that the real parts of the subcarriers also contain the information of the transmitted signal. An iterative receiver is then proposed to improve the transmission performance of PAM-DMT by exploiting both the real and imaginary parts of the subcarriers. Simulation results show that the proposed iterative receiver can significantly improve the transmission performance of PAM-DMT systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper introduces an optical vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication system based on an optical wireless communication technology using an LED transmitter and a camera receiver, which employs a special CMOS image sensor, i.e, an optical communication image sensor (OCI). The OCI has a “communication pixel (CPx)” that can promptly respond to light intensity variations and an output circuit of a “flag image” in which only high-intensity light sources, such as LEDs, have emerged. The OCI that employs these two technologies provides capabilities for a 10-Mb/s optical signal reception and real-time LED detection to the camera receiver. The optical V2V communication system consisting of the LED transmitters mounted on a leading vehicle and the camera receiver mounted on a following vehicle is constructed, and various experiments are conducted under real driving and outdoor lighting conditions. Due to the LED detection method using the flag image, the camera receiver correctly detects LEDs, in real time, in challenging outdoor conditions. Furthermore, between two vehicles, various vehicle internal data (such as speed) and image data (320 × 240, color) are transmitted successfully, and the 13.0-fps image data reception is achieved while driving outside. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The high peak-to-average-power ratio (PAPR) of orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) degrades the performance in optical wireless communication systems. This paper proposes a modified asymmetrically clipped optical OFDM (ACO-OFDM) with low PAPR via introducing a recoverable upper-clipping (RoC) procedure. Although some information is clipped by a predetermined peak threshold, the clipped error information is kept and repositioned in our proposed scheme, which is named RoC-ACO-OFDM, instead of simply being dropped in conventional schemes. The proposed method makes full use of the specific structure of ACO-OFDM signals in the time domain, where half of the positions are forced to zeros within an OFDM symbol. The zero-valued positions are utilized to carry the clipped error information. Moreover, we accordingly present an optimal maximum a posteriori (MAP) detection for the RoC-ACO-OFDM system. To facilitate the usage of RoC-ACO-OFDM in practical applications, an efficient detection method is further developed with near-optimal performance. Simulation results show that the proposed RoC-ACO-OFDM achieves a significant PAPR reduction, while maintaining a competitive bit-error rate performance compared with the conventional schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An optical wireless communication (OWC) system based on a light-emitting-diode (LED) transmitter and a camera receiver has been developed for use in the automotive area. The automotive OWC system will require Mb/s-class data rates and the ability to quickly detect LEDs from an image. The key to achieving this is improvements to the capabilities of the image sensor mounted on the camera receiver. In this paper, we report on a novel OWC system equipped with an optical communication image sensor (OCI), which is newly developed using CMOS technology. To obtain higher transmission rates, the OCI employs a specialized “communication pixel (CPx)” capable of responding promptly to optical intensity variations. Furthermore, a new quick LED detection technique, based on a 1-bit flag image which only reacts to high-intensity objects, is formulated. The communication pixels, ordinary image pixels, and associated circuits (including 1-bit flag image output circuits) are then integrated into the OCI. This paper describes the design, fabrication, and capabilities of the OCI, as well as the development of the LED and image sensor based OWC system, which boasts a 20-Mb/s/pixel data rate without LED detection and a 15-Mb/s/pixel data rate with a 16.6-ms real-time LED detection. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The crosstalk effect of aerosol backscatter on the performance of a wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) optical wireless communication (OWC) system is investigated, analyzed, and quantified. An OWC link could be a segment within a metropolitan area network (MAN) or a ground-station-to-space link of a satellite communication system. In these cases, a WDM transmitter and receiver are housed in one transceiver unit with parallel, or near-parallel, optic axes. The crosstalk at the receiver is caused by light from the transmitted signal of the same transceiver, which has been backscattered by molecules and aerosols in the atmosphere. This is exacerbated in the presence of fog and haze, in which case both the desired signal from another transceiver is attenuated by scattering and the backscatter-induced crosstalk increases. A bit-error-rate (BER) model is derived that takes into consideration the dominant noise sources, including backscatter-induced crosstalk and signal mixing with amplified stimulated emission (ASE) from an optical preamplifier at the receiver. The numerical calculations in this paper indicate that, in moderate fog, the BER may increase by an order of magnitude or more due to backscatter, depending upon the atmospheric extinction coefficient. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]