Multiple-input Multiple-output Visible Light Communication Research Articles

Energy-efficient constellations design and fast decoding for space-collaborative MIMO visible light communications

In this paper, space-collaborative constellations (SCCs) for indoor multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) visible light communication (VLC) systems are considered. Compared with traditional VLC MIMO techniques, such as repetition coding (RC), spatial modulation (SM) and spatial multiplexing (SMP), SCC achieves the minimum average optical power for a fixed minimum Euclidean distance. We have presented a unified SCC structure for 2×2 MIMO VLC systems and extended it to larger MIMO VLC systems with more transceivers. Specifically for 2×2 MIMO VLC, a fast decoding algorithm is developed with decoding complexity almost linear in terms of the square root of the cardinality of SCC, and the expressions of symbol error rate of SCC are presented. In addition, bit mappings similar to Gray mapping are proposed for SCC. Computer simulations are performed to verify the fast decoding algorithm and the performance of SCC, and the results demonstrate that the performance of SCC is better than those of RC, SM and SMP for indoor channels in general.

2 Gbit/s VLC Scheme Using Time-Frequency Color-Clustered MIMO Based on BCYR LEDs

A 2 Gbit/s visible-light communication (VLC) scheme using time-frequency color-clustered (TFCC) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) based on blue, cyan, yellow, and red (BCYR) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is presented. In the proposed scheme, BCYR LEDs are employed to form four different color clusters. Data transmission using the four color clusters is performed in MIMO, so that the scheme achieves a very high speed of data transmission. Moreover, the scheme employs the TFCC strategy to yield high performance in terms of bit error rate (BER). TFCC operates in such a way that the original data and the two delayed versions of the data are multiplied by orthogonal frequencies and then transmitted using a specific color of the BCYR LED. In the receiver, color filters are employed to detect the data transmitted from the desired cluster. Selection combining (SC) is also performed to yield a diversity effect within each color cluster, to further improve the performance. Performance evaluation demonstrates that the proposed TFCC MIMO VLC offers a data rate of 2 Gbit/s and a bit error rate of 4×10-5, at an Eb/No value of merely 3 dB.

Visible-light communication multiple-input multiple-output technology for indoor lighting, communication, and positioning

Visible-light communication (VLC) is license free and electromagnetic-interference free; it thus can be deployed in radio-frequency forbidden areas. The light-emitting diode (LED) system providing simultaneously lighting, VLC, and positioning is highly desirable for providing real-time tracking, monitoring, and navigating with very little extra cost. We propose and demonstrate a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) VLC-positioning system using white-light LEDs. Our scheme is based on MIMO to provide both position and VLC. Experimental results show that the proposed MIMO VLC system can achieve a bit-error rate of 10−10, while the positioning errors are within 1 cm. Numerical analyses are also performed, showing the positioning error can be measured within 1 cm. Further analysis of tilting angle of the receiver is also presented.

Joint Optimization of Precoder and Equalizer in MIMO VLC Systems

Recently, visible light communication (VLC) has attracted much attention as a possible candidate technology to meet the ever growing demand in wireless data. However, current low-cost white LED has limited modulation bandwidth, which limits the throughput of the VLC. Optical MIMO can provide spatial diversity and thus achieve high data rate. Traditional multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques used in wireless communications cannot be directly applied to VLC. This paper studies the precoder and equalizer design of optical wireless MIMO system for VLC. First, we propose a MIMO VLC system, which can effectively support the flickering/dimming control and other VLC-specific requirements. Second, besides the transceiver design with perfect channel state information, we also take into account channel uncertainties for joint optimization in the MIMO VLC system. Numerical results show that the proposed MIMO solution for VLC is robust to combat the influence caused by the channel estimation imperfection. By taking into account the channel estimation errors, the proposed joint optimization method demonstrates the bit error rate (BER) improvements in the scenario of imperfect channel estimation.

A 100-Gb/s Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Visible Laser Light Communication System

A 100-Gb/s multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) visible laser light communication (VLLC) system employing vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with 16-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) modulating signals is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The transmission capacity of systems is significantly increased by space-division-multiplexing scheme. With the aid of low-noise amplifier and equalizer at the receiving site, good bit error rate performance and clear constellation map are obtained for each optical channel. A system of eight 16-QAM-OFDM channels over 5-m free-space links with a total data rate of 100 Gb/s (12.5 Gb/s/channel × 8 channels) is successfully achieved. Such a proposed MIMO VLLC system is shown to be a prominent one not only presents its convenience in free-space optical communication, but also reveals its potential for the real implementation.

Indoor gigabit 2 × 2 imaging multiple-input–multiple-output visible light communication

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a 2 × 2 imaging multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) Nyquist single carrier visible light communication (VLC) system based on spectral efficient 64/32-ary quadrature amplitude modulation, as well as pre- and post-equalizations. Two commercially available red-green-blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with 3 dB bandwidth of 10 MHz and two avalanche photodiodes with 3 dB bandwidth of 100 MHz are employed. Due to the limited experiment condition, three different colors/wavelengths are transmitted separately. The achieved data rates of red, green, and blue LED chips are 1.5, 1.25, and 1.25 Gb/s, respectively. The resulting bit error ratios are below the 7% pre-forward error correction limit of 3.8 × 10-3 after 75 cm indoor transmission. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first experimental investigation of imaging MIMO system, and it is the highest data rate ever achieved in MIMO VLC system.

Analysis of an Optical Wireless Receiver Using a Hemispherical Lens With Application in MIMO Visible Light Communications

White lighting LEDs offer great potential for high speed communications, especially for indoor applications. However, for their widespread adoption, two important issues need to be addressed: the lack of diversity in multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) systems, and the small field of view of receivers. In this paper, we describe a design using a hemispherical lens in the receiver that solves these problems. By using classical optics, we derive exact expressions for the channel gain and the optical power density of the projected images. Simulation results of a typical indoor scenario show that the new system has a wide field of view, and provides adequate channel gain for angles of incidence as large as 70 degrees. We present the distribution of optical power on the imaging plane for various receiving positions and tilted receivers over a number of representative indoor scenarios. They show that the images of LEDs are clearly distinguishable. The results demonstrate the presence of low channel correlations between individual transmitters and receivers. Consequently, this confirms that the new technique is capable of providing significant diversity order for MIMO optical wireless applications.

Experimental Demonstration of 4×4 MIMO Wireless Visible Light Communication Using a Commercial CCD Image Sensor

We report an experimental demonstration of 4 × 4 multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless visible light communications (VLC) using a charge-coupled device image sensor receiver instead of a photodiode receiver. An image sensor is a kind of digital camera, which is used in most mobile devices such as smart phones or laptop computers and a promising commercial candidate for a VLC receiver. The transmission distance of the experimental result is over 10 m, enough for most indoor communication applications. We expect that the MIMO VLC technique based on image sensor receivers can be widely used with the development of high-speed image sensors.