Optimum device and modulation scheme selection for optical wireless communications

Journal article

There has been extensive modelling of the optical wireless channel, and the optimum modulation scheme for a particular channel is well-understood. However, this modelling has not taken into account the trade-offs that transmitter and receiver selection usually involve. For a particular type of transmitter, the modulation bandwidth and available power are closely related, as are receiver bandwidth, active area and sensitivity. In this paper, we present a design approach that takes this device selection into account. The paper details a general design method for an optical wireless communication system using a holistic design approach (i.e. considering channel, modulation schemes and device constraints). The paper shows results for particular examples, showing a substantial increase in margin (or data-rate) is available using this approach. For instance, by using this approach mutually optimising both modulation schemes and device constraints, it is found that for an optimally chosen Gallium Nitride micro-LED and a commercial photo receiver pair, a 20 dB SNR margin (or ~3 times data-rate improvement) can be obtained compared with a more typical approach mainly concerning the modulation scheme optimisation.

Authors: Chun, H; Rajbhandari, S; Faulkner, G; Xi, E; McKendry, JJD

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: IEEE
• Journal: Journal of Lightwave Technology
• Volume: 39
• Issue: 8
• Pages: 2281-2287
• Publication date: 2021-01-13
• Acceptance date: 2020-12-10
• DOI: 10.1109/JLT.2021.3051379
• EISSN: 1558-2213
• ISSN: 0733-8724
• Language: English
• Keywords: FFR