free-space optical networking using the spectrum of visible light

8
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR TRENDS IN ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2 MAY 2015 - ISSN: 2349 - 9303 217 Free-Space Optical Networking Using the Spectrum of Visible Light Nitin Chacko 1 1 Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology, Cochin [email protected] Swapna Davies 2 2 Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology, Cochin [email protected] AbstractRadio frequency technology suffers from limited bandwidth and electromagnetic interference. The recent developments in solid-state Light Emitting Diode (LED) materials and devices are driving resurgence into the use of Free-Space Optical (FSO) wireless communication. LED-based network transceivers have a variety of competitive advantages over RF including high bandwidth density, security, energy consumption, and aesthetics. They also use a highly reusable unregulated part of the spectrum (visible light). Many opportunities exist to exploit low-cost nature of LEDs and lighting units for widespread deployment of optical communication. The prime focus is to reducing cost, and for that, we have to make appropriate selection of system’s components, e.g. modulation, coding, filtering. The objective is to describe the viability of an optical free-space visible light transceiver as a basis for indoor wireless networking and to achieve acceptable bit error rate (BER) performance for indoor use, with a low cost system. Index TermsFree-space optics, Light Emitting Diode, Optical communication, Optical modulation techniques, Visible light spectrum, Wireless communication . —————————— —————————— 1 INTRODUCTION Optical wireless communication (OWC) refers to a free-space optical (FSO) link, where the transmitter and receiver are not necessarily aligned to each other. OWC in general addresses quite different applications, starting from chip-to-chip interconnects and ending in intra-satellite data links. OWC links can be realized with quite different optical sources and detectors. For low data rates, traditional light bulbs, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), or plasma display panels (PDPs) can be used. In the receiver end, low-cost digital cameras are used as they are currently featured in every mobile device. As societal dependence upon wireless systems continues to grow, wireless technology needs to expand to meet the demand. Phones, laptops, and global positioning systems are all devices that implement certain forms of wireless communication to send information to another location. However, the availability of current forms of wireless is very limited, and it is not necessarily safe to implement wireless radio, making it necessary to explore other alternatives to wireless communication to allow continued expansion upon communication systems and to ensure safe use. The radio spectrum is highly congested and the demand for wireless data communication is increasing day-by-day. The bandwidth required for the radio frequency communication is rapidly getting exhausted.[1,2] The introduction of multiple nodes and cell splitting can be done to overcome this, but it is expensive. Also, two nodes do not provide double the capacity of one due to the interference issue. Moreover, doubling the infrastructure will not double the revenue. Recent studies on the hazards of radio frequency have found that extreme radio frequency radiation causes adverse effect on the environment. Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) refers to a free-space optical (FSO) link, where both transmitter and receiver are not necessarily aligned to each other. OWC in general addresses quite different applications, starting from chip-to-chip interconnects and ending in intra-satellite data links. OWC links can be realized with quite different optical sources and detectors. For low data rates, traditional light bulbs, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), or plasma display panels (PDPs) can be used. In the receiver end, low-cost digital cameras are used as they are currently featured in every mobile device. The new LED-based luminaries will be omnipresent a few years from now. Besides their original lighting function, their light can be modulated at high speed. In this way, we can realize significantly higher data rates over moderate distances.[3] When compared with the traditional incandescent and fluorescent lamps, LEDs have a number of advantages such as a longer life expectancy, a higher tolerance to humidity, a smaller size and lower power consumption. As the cost of manufacturing decreases, LEDs become affordable and popular for color displays, traffic signals, and for illumination applications.[4] In recent years, LEDs have been used to transmit data at higher rates over a short-range optical wireless communication link. For dual purpose of illumination and data communications, white LEDs are ideal sources for future applications. With the availability of highly efficient white LEDs or by using a blue emitter in combination with a phosphor, we are witnessing a surge in research and development in indoor visible light communication systems. Light Emitting Diode (LED) Visible Light Communication (VLC) system is creating a possible valuable addition to future generations of technology, which have the potential to utilize light for the purposes of advanced technological communication at ultra high speed surpassing that of current wireless systems.[5] The most common link configurations for indoor OWC systems are the line-of-sight (LOS) and the diffuse or a hybrid LOS-diffuse.

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR TRENDS IN ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2 – MAY 2015 - ISSN: 2349 - 9303

217

Free-Space Optical Networking Using the Spectrum of

Visible Light

Nitin Chacko1

1Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering

Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology, Cochin

[email protected]

Swapna Davies2

2Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering

Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology, Cochin

[email protected]

Abstract— Radio frequency technology suffers from limited bandwidth and electromagnetic interference. The recent developments in solid-state Light Emitting Diode (LED) materials and devices are driving resurgence into the use of Free-Space Optical (FSO) wireless communication. LED-based network transceivers have a variety of competitive advantages over RF including high bandwidth density, security, energy consumption, and aesthetics. They also use a highly reusable unregulated part of the spectrum (visible light). Many opportunities exist to exploit low-cost nature of LEDs and lighting units for widespread deployment of optical communication. The prime focus is to reducing cost, and for that, we have to make appropriate selection of system’s components, e.g. modulation, coding, filtering. The objective is to describe the viability of an optical free-space visible light transceiver as a basis for indoor wireless networking and to achieve acceptable bit error rate (BER) performance for indoor use, with a low cost system.

Index Terms— Free-space optics, Light Emitting Diode, Optical communication, Optical modulation techniques, Visible light spectrum, Wireless communication .

—————————— ——————————

1 INTRODUCTION

Optical wireless communication (OWC) refers to a free-space optical

(FSO) link, where the transmitter and receiver are not necessarily aligned to each other. OWC in general addresses quite different

applications, starting from chip-to-chip interconnects and ending in intra-satellite data links. OWC links can be realized with quite

different optical sources and detectors. For low data rates, traditional light bulbs, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), or plasma display panels

(PDPs) can be used. In the receiver end, low-cost digital cameras are used as they are currently featured in every mobile device. As

societal dependence upon wireless systems continues to grow, wireless technology needs to expand to meet the demand. Phones,

laptops, and global positioning systems are all devices that implement certain forms of wireless communication to send

information to another location. However, the availability of current forms of wireless is very limited, and it is not necessarily safe to

implement wireless radio, making it necessary to explore other alternatives to wireless communication to allow continued expansion

upon communication systems and to ensure safe use. The radio spectrum is highly congested and the demand for wireless data

communication is increasing day-by-day. The bandwidth required for the radio frequency communication is rapidly getting exhausted.[1,2]

The introduction of multiple nodes and cell splitting can be done to overcome this, but it is expensive. Also, two nodes do not provide

double the capacity of one due to the interference issue. Moreover,

doubling the infrastructure will not double the revenue. Recent studies on the hazards of radio frequency have found that extreme

radio frequency radiation causes adverse effect on the environment.

Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) refers to a free-space

optical (FSO) link, where both transmitter and receiver are not

necessarily aligned to each other. OWC in general addresses quite

different applications, starting from chip-to-chip interconnects and

ending in intra-satellite data links. OWC links can be realized with

quite different optical sources and detectors. For low data rates,

traditional light bulbs, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), or plasma

display panels (PDPs) can be used. In the receiver end, low-cost

digital cameras are used as they are currently featured in every

mobile device. The new LED-based luminaries will be omnipresent a

few years from now. Besides their original lighting function, their

light can be modulated at high speed. In this way, we can realize

significantly higher data rates over moderate distances.[3]

When compared with the traditional incandescent and fluorescent

lamps, LEDs have a number of advantages such as a longer life

expectancy, a higher tolerance to humidity, a smaller size and lower

power consumption. As the cost of manufacturing decreases, LEDs

become affordable and popular for color displays, traffic signals, and

for illumination applications.[4] In recent years, LEDs have been

used to transmit data at higher rates over a short-range optical

wireless communication link.

For dual purpose of illumination and data communications, white

LEDs are ideal sources for future applications. With the availability

of highly efficient white LEDs or by using a blue emitter in

combination with a phosphor, we are witnessing a surge in research

and development in indoor visible light communication systems.

Light Emitting Diode (LED) Visible Light Communication (VLC)

system is creating a possible valuable addition to future generations

of technology, which have the potential to utilize light for the

purposes of advanced technological communication at ultra high

speed surpassing that of current wireless systems.[5]

The most common link configurations for indoor OWC systems

are the line-of-sight (LOS) and the diffuse or a hybrid LOS-diffuse.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR TRENDS IN ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2 – MAY 2015 - ISSN: 2349 - 9303

218

Normally, the diffuse system provides a larger coverage area and an

excellent mobility, but at the cost of lower data rates, higher path

losses and multipath induced inter-symbol interference (ISI) caused

by the signal reflections from walls and other objects within the

room. On the other hand, LOS links, where the beam is confined

within a narrow field-of-view (FOV), offer a much higher channel

capacity and a longer range. However, LOS links offer a limited

coverage area as well as requiring alignment and tracking to

maintain link availability. In order to protect the data integrity during

transmission the input data should be framed, so as to detect lost

signals and to ensure correct transmission and reception of the data.

Computer network protocols like stop and wait algorithms are

employed to solve this problem.

2 VISIBLE LIGHT COMMUNICATION

The radio spectrum is highly congested and the demand for wireless

data communication is increasing day-by-day. Bandwidth required

for the radio frequency communication is rapidly getting exhausted.

Introduction of multiple nodes and cell splitting can be done to

overcome this, but it is expensive. Also, two nodes do not provide

double the capacity of one due to the interference issue. Moreover,

doubling the infrastructure will not double the revenue. Recent

studies on hazards of radio frequency have found that extreme radio

frequency radiation causes adverse effect on environment.[2,3]

Optical wireless communication (OWC) systems operating in the

visible band (390–750 nm) are commonly referred to as visible light

communication (VLC). The history of Visible Light

Communications (VLC) dates back to the 1880s in Washington, D.C.

when the Scottish-born scientist Alexander Graham Bell invented

the photophone, which transmitted speech on modulated sunlight

over several hundred meters. This pre-dates the transmission of

speech by radio.

Visible light communication is a subset of wireless optic

technology. Specially designed electronic device containing

a photodiode receives signals from light sources. The image sensor

used in these devices is in fact an array of photodiodes and in some

applications its use may be preferred over a single photodiode. Such

a sensor may provide either multi-channel communication or a

spatial awareness of multiple light sources.

3 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

Precise dimming appears to be challenging for incandescent and gas-

discharge lamps, whereas in the LEDs it is quite convenient to

accurately control the dimming level. This is because, the LED

response time during on and off switch operation is very short.

Therefore, by modulating the driver current at a relatively high

frequency, it is thus possible to switch LEDs on and off without this

being perceived by the human eyes.

3.1 VLC System Overview

LEDs are used both for lighting as well as communications. LED

access points are connected to the backbone wired network.[1]

Communications for the entire room in the system is covered by four

optical cells, each of which has a wide divergence angle LED source.

At the receiving end, the optical receivers, mounted on a mobile

terminal, has a dedicated FOV of 30° to ensure seamless

connectivity as well as alleviating the need for using pointing and

tracking schemes. In addition, the suitable modulation scheme can

also be adopted to improve the overall system capacity. The

separation between the source and receiver will be a few meters.

Each compartment or cell consists of an LED transmitter, a diffuser

and an optical receiver.

Fig. 1. Indoor cellular visible light communication with four

compartments (cells)

3.2 Transmitter End

The network transmission elements and lighting are very often used

in the same space, and thus combining the two devices into one

would save on overall component and power cost. Similarly, light

sources such as traffic lights can be retrofitted with VLC capabilities

to enable vehicular communications, or at the very least, road-to-

vehicle communications, where traffic lights can be used to transmit

information about upcoming traffic. All of these use cases rely on the

implementation of a modulated light source for communication.

Given the ease of modulating LEDs electrically, the extension of

LED lighting towards communications seems a natural next step.

Additionally, research has demonstrated that white LEDs are a viable

low-cost next step with respect to power efficient lighting. The

comparative assessment of the luminous efficacy of different light

sources is shown in table I.

LEDs with no shaping lenses can be essentially considered

as the Lambertian source. A surface which obeys Lambert's law is

said to be Lambertian, and exhibits Lambertian reflectance. Such a

surface has the same radiance when viewed from any angle. This

means that, to the human eye it has the same apparent brightness

(or luminance). It has the same radiance because, although the

emitted power from a given area element is reduced by the cosine of

the emission angle, the apparent size (solid angle) of the observed

area, as seen by a viewer, is decreased by a corresponding amount.

Therefore, its radiance is the same.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR TRENDS IN ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2 – MAY 2015 - ISSN: 2349 - 9303

219

TABLE 1 APPROXIMATE LUMINOUS EFFICACY OF DIFFERENT LIGHT SOURCES

lm/W = Lumens per Watt, hrs = Hours

In many applications, there are requirements for specific

radiation distributions to ensure a full coverage and an optimum link

performance. In such cases shaping lenses are used at the

transmitter.[3,4] The light source position at the center of a

compartment or cell is composed of an LED and an optical lens. To

achieve a wider coverage area with a uniform radiation distribution

pattern, a luminit holographic LSD is employed at the transmitter

end. Figure 2 depicts the system block diagram of a signal cell VLC

system which includes a transmitter, a concentrator, filter and a

detector.

Fig. 2. Block diagram representation of visible light communication system

3.3 Extension of Divergence Angle of Transmitter

The holographic light shaping diffusers provide extended

effective divergence angle.

𝜃 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 = 𝜃(𝐹𝑂𝑉)2 + 𝜃(𝐿𝑆𝐷)2

(1)

where, θ (output) is the effective output angle of the light, θ (FOV) is

the light source field-of-view and θ (LSD) is the angle of

holographic light shaping diffuser.

Fig. 3. Visible light communication using holographic light shaping

diffuser

Holographic Diffusers are used to control the diffuse area of

illumination and increase transmission efficiency to greater than 90

percentage from filament lamps, LEDs, arc lamps, and other sources.

Standard ground glass and opal glass will produce diffuse

illumination, but the diffuse light area will often exceed the

requirements of the system.[1] This over-illumination, associated

with traditional diffusers, reduces efficiency and can often lead to

added costs by requiring higher power illumination sources, lenses,

and possibly filters. It is important to note that diffusing angles are

given for a collimated input beam and angular divergence will vary

for different incidence angles.

Unlike many holographic elements, these specific polycarbonate

components can be used throughout the visible and near-infrared.

The hologram is a two level surface relief diffractive element that

affects only the phase of light passing through it. The far-field

radiation pattern passing through the hologram is approximately the

Fourier transform of the surface relief structure. In order to simplify

the calculation of the beam intensity through the holographic LSD, it

is divided into an array of ``pixels,'' and the MATLAB platform is

used to simulate the beam profile for every pixel. For a very tiny

beam profile, the intensity of light can be considered as uniform after

passing through the single pixel. Finally, the overall coverage area is

could be the sum of individual foot prints per pixel.

3.4 Receiver End

A typical indoor optical wireless communication receiver front-

end usually consists of a concentrator, an optical filter, a

photodetector, a pre-amplifier, a post-equalizer, and an electrical

filter. A schematic diagram is shown in figure. The specifications for

the receiver are given in Table II.

TABLE 2

SPECIFICATION OF INDOOR VLC SYSTEM

MHz = Mega Hertz, nm = Nanometer, mW =Milli Watt, m = meter, mm =

millimeter, A/W = Ampere/Watt, ns=nanosecond

For Non-LOS channel or non-directed channel such as a diffuse

channel, using non-imaging hemispherical or compound parabolic

concentrator (CPC) and corresponding optical filter could effectively

enlarge the active receiving area and broaden the FOV to increase

the received optical power. However, for the directed LOS channel,

the FOV should be designed to be small to reduce the received

ambient light noise power because the ambient light noise is usually

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR TRENDS IN ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2 – MAY 2015 - ISSN: 2349 - 9303

220

diffused inside the whole room as background light. Generally there

are two kinds of photodetectors that can be adopted in an indoor

LOS VLC system design - the photodiode (PD) and the image

sensor.

The photodiode has been widely adopted in optical

communication systems with relatively large received optical power.

The advantages of the photodiode include its low price and possible

high reception bandwidth. The bandwidth of the photodiode is

usually inversely proportional to its active receiving area due to the

internal capacitance along with the receiving area.[5,6]

Fig. 3. Receiver front-end for the VLC system

Compared with the photodiode, the image sensor is able to

provide receiver spatial diversity to enhance detection performance

and additional source location information for location-aware

services. For application scenarios where multiple LED arrays in a

room send different signals to multiple users, using a large FOV PD

detector may lead to large interference that degrades received SNR.

In this case an image sensor would better serve as a photodetector

that could effectively discriminate different LED arrays and reduce

inter-array interference.

Besides, using an image sensor to realize high data rate MIMO

optical wireless communication has also been proved to be feasible.

The major noise sources present in an indoor VLC system include

ambient light noise (background solar radiation through windows,

incandescent radiation, and fluorescent radiation), signal and

ambient light induced shot noise in the photodetector, and the

electrical preamplifier noise. The ambient light noise induced by

background solar radiation and incandescent lamps represents

essentially a DC interference that could be easily eliminated using an

electrical high pass filter. The noise induced by fluorescent lamps

needs to be determined in different application scenarios based on

what kind of driving circuit is used.

4 MODULATION TECHNIQUES

The eye safety introduces a limitation on the amount of optical

power being transmitted For indoor applications, the eye safety limit

on transmit optical power is even more stringent. The optical channel

differs significantly from the RF channels. Unlike RF systems where

the amplitude, frequency and phase of the carrier signal are

modulated, in optical systems, it is the intensity of the optical carrier

that is modulated in most systems operating below 2.5 Gbps data

rates. For data rates greater than 2.5 Gbps, external modulation is

normally adopted. Additionally, the use of photodetectors with a

surface area many times larger than the optical wavelength facilitates

the averaging of thousands of wavelength of the incident wave.[3]

On-Off Keying (OOK)

Among all modulation techniques based on intensity

modulation with direct detection, on-off keying (OOK) is the most

used scheme for digital optical transmission due to its simplicity. A

bit one is simply represented by an optical pulse that occupies the

entire or part of the bit duration while a bit zero is represented by the

absence of an optical pulse. Both return-to-zero and non-return-to-

zero schemes can be applied. In the NRZ scheme, a pulse with

duration equal to the bit duration is transmitted to represent 1 while

in the RZ scheme, the pulse occupies only the partial duration of bit.

The electrical power spectral densities of OOK-NRZ and

OOK-RZ (Duty cycle = 0.5) assuming independently and identically

distributed (IID) ones and zeros are given by

𝑠𝑂𝑂𝐾−𝑁𝑅𝑍 𝑓 = (𝑃𝑟𝑅)2𝑇𝑏 sin 𝜋𝑓𝑇𝑏

𝜋𝑓𝑇𝑏

2

1 +𝛿(𝑓)

𝑇𝑏 (2)

𝑠𝑂𝑂𝐾−𝑅𝑍(𝐷𝑈𝑇𝑌 𝐶𝑌𝐶𝐿𝐸=0.5) 𝑓

= (𝑃𝑟𝑅)2𝑇𝑏 sin 𝜋𝑓𝑇𝑏/2

𝜋𝑓𝑇𝑏/2

2

1 + 𝛿(𝑓 −

𝑛𝑇𝑏

)

𝑇𝑏

𝑛=−∞

(3)

where, 𝛿 𝑓 is the Dirac delta function, f = Frequency, Tb = Bit

duration, Rb = Bit rate, Pr = Average optical power, R =

Responsivity

Pulse Position Modulation (PPM)

In PPM, each symbol interval of duration T = log2 L/Rb is

partitioned into L subintervals, or chips, each of duration T/L, and

the transmitter sends an optical pulse during one and only one of

these chips. For any L greater than 2, PPM requires less optical

power than OOK. In principle, the optical power requirement can be

made arbitrarily small by making L suitably large, at the expense of

increased bandwidth. The bandwidth required by PPM to achieve a

bit rate of Rb is approximately the inverse of one chip duration, B =

L/T. In addition to the increased bandwidth requirement, PPM needs

(compared to OOK) more transmitter peak power and both chip- and

symbol-level synchronization.

𝑠𝑃𝑃𝑀 𝑓 = P f 2 + [𝑠𝐶,𝑃𝑃𝑀 𝑓 + 𝑠𝐷,𝑃𝑃𝑀 𝑓 ] (4)

𝑠𝐶,𝐷𝑃𝐼𝑀 𝑓 = Rk −1

L2 e−j2𝜋𝑘𝑓𝑇𝑠𝑦𝑚 _𝐷𝑃𝐼𝑀

5𝐿

𝑘=−5𝐿 (5)

𝑠𝐷 ,𝐷𝑃𝐼𝑀 𝑓 =2𝜋

𝑇𝑠𝑦𝑚 _𝐷𝑃𝐼𝑀2L2

δ f −2𝜋k

𝑇𝑠𝑦𝑚 _𝐷𝑃𝐼𝑀

𝑘=−∞ (6)

f = Frequency, L = Symbol length, Tsym = Symbol duration, Sc =

Continuous component, Sd = Discrete component, P(f) = Fourier

transform of pulse shape

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Digital Pulse Interval Modulation

In DPIM, the information is encoded by inserting empty

slots between two pulses. The DPIM offers a reduced complexity

compared to PPM due to its built-in symbol synchronization. Guard

slots can also be inserted.

𝑠𝐷𝑃𝐼𝑀 𝑓 =1

𝑇𝑠𝑦𝑚 _𝐷𝑃𝐼𝑀

P f 2 + [𝑠𝐶,𝐷𝑃𝐼𝑀 𝑓 + 𝑠𝐷 ,𝐷𝑃𝐼𝑀 𝑓 ] (7)

𝑠𝐶,𝐷𝑃𝐼𝑀 𝑓 = Rk −1

L2 e−j2𝜋𝑘𝑓𝑇𝑠𝑦𝑚 _𝐷𝑃𝐼𝑀

5𝐿

𝑘=−5𝐿 (8)

𝑠𝐷 ,𝐷𝑃𝐼𝑀 𝑓 =2𝜋

𝑇𝑠𝑦𝑚 _𝐷𝑃𝐼𝑀2L2

δ f −2𝜋k

𝑇𝑠𝑦𝑚 _𝐷𝑃𝐼𝑀

𝑘=−∞ (9)

f = Frequency, L = Symbol length, Tsym_DPIM = Symbol duration, Sc =

Continuous component, Sd = Discrete component, P(f) = Fourier

transform of pulse shape

5 IMPLEMENTATION AND SIMULATION RESULTS

The simulation is done using MATLAB software. MATLAB

(MATrix LABoratory) is a numerical computing environment and

fourth-generation programming language. The software is developed

by MathWorks Incorporated. The matrix manipulations, plotting of

functions and data and implementation of algorithms can be done

using this platform. These are often used in physical and

mathematical problems and are most useful when it is difficult or

impossible to obtain a closed-form expression, or infeasible to apply

a deterministic algorithm. The goal of conducting simulations is to

verify and validate the selection of parameters as well as to visualize

the intermediate results not obtainable from experimental results.

Fig. 4. Normalized power distribution at the receiving plane

Fig.5. Power contour plot at the receiving plane

Fig. 6. Analytical power spectral density of OOK modulation

Fig. 7. Bit error probability curve for OOK modulation

Fig. 8. Analytical power spectral density of pulse position modulation

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR TRENDS IN ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2 – MAY 2015 - ISSN: 2349 - 9303

222

Fig. 9. Symbol error probability curve pulse position modulation

Fig. 10. Analytical power spectral density of digital pulse interval

modulation

Fig. 11. Symbol error probability curve for digital pulse interval modulation

The normalized power distribution graph for a four-cell structure

is shown in the figure 4.. It is can be seen that most of the power is

concentrated near the centre of each cell decreasing sharply towards

the cell edges. In a four-cell configuration with a circular foot print,

the area within dotted line circle, see figure 5, is defined as the 3-dB

power attenuation area from the centre of a cell. The rest of the area

is defined as the no coverage area or the ―dead zones‖ with no

optical illumination.[1,2].

To design, implement and operate efficient optical communication

systems, it is imperative that the characteristics of the channel are

well understood. The characterization of a communication channel is

performed by its channel impulse response, which is then used to

analyse and combat the effects of channel distortions. Two types of

configurations are considered in VLC channel. They are LOS (Line-

of-Sight) and non-LOS channels. For directed LOS and tracked

configurations, reflections do not need to be taken into consideration.

Consequently, the path loss is easily calculated from knowledge of

the transmitter beam divergence, receiver size and separation

distance.

However, a non-LOS configuration, also known as diffuse

systems uses reflection from the room surfaces and furniture. These

reflections could be seen as unwanted signals or multipath

distortions which make the prediction of the path loss more complex.

The delay spread is a measure of the multipath richness of a

communications channel. In general, it can be interpreted as the

difference between the time of arrival of the earliest significant

multipath component (line-of-sight component) and the time of

arrival of the latest multipath components.[2,3]

LOS Communication Link

Line-of-Sight propagation is the characteristic of light waves

traveling in a straight line. The fundamental equation for finding the

DC gain of a line-of-sight optical wireless system is given by,

G = A m + 1

2πd2

cosᵐ Φ cos(ψ) 0 ≤ ψ ≤ ψₐ

0 0 ≥ ψₐ

(10)

where G is the channel gain, A is the photodetector surface area, m is

order of Lambertian emission, d is the distance vector, Φ is the

incidence angle, ψ is the irradiance angle and ψa is the field-of-view

(semiangle) at the receiver.

The received power is the product of transmitted power and the

channel gain.

P received = P transmitted X Channel gain (G) (11)

Diffuse (Non-LOS) Communication Link

For non-directed LOS and diffuse links, the optical path

loss is more complex to predict since it is dependent on a multitude

of factors, such as room dimensions, the reflectivity of the ceiling,

walls and objects within the room, and the position and orientation of

the transmitter and receiver, window size and place and other

physical matters within a room. The reflection characteristics of

object surfaces within a room depend on several factors including,

the transmission wavelength, surface material, the angle of incidence

and roughness of the surface relative to the wavelength. The latter

mainly determines the shape of the optical reflection pattern.

The three digital modulation schemes popular in optical wireless

communication systems (OOK, PPM and DPIM) are compared

based on bandwidth requirement, power efficiency and transmission

capacity. In OOK, the bandwidth requirement is roughly equivalent

to the data rate. PPM achieves higher average power efficiency than

OOK at the expense of an increased bandwidth compared to OOK.

Besides, the use of PPM imposes more system complexity compared

to OOK at the receiver.

Unlike PPM, DPIM does not require symbol synchronization

since each symbol is initiated with a pulse. Furthermore, DPIM

displays a higher transmission capacity by eliminating all the unused

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time slots from within each symbol.

The mean delay spread and RMS delay spread for a diffuse link

is shown in the figure 12 a and b.

Fig. 12. Channel delay spread for a diffuse communication link a) Mean

delay spread b) RMS delay spread

6 CONCLUSION

The development of wireless communications technology over the

last few decades has brought with it an explosion of new applications

for consumers. Convenience of access to the internet is

unprecedented, with indoor wireless local area network (WLAN).

Large-area, high-speed network coverage through metropolitan

access networks (MANs) is now being realized, and indeed, such

networks are the current state-of-the-art with respect to developing

standards, enabling next generation mobile applications and high-

speed wireless municipal access networks. Moving forward, the

natural inclination is towards faster, more reliable wireless

communications. As a result, development of complex schemes that

allow for high symbol rate and high signal-to-noise ratio is an open

research topic in both academia and industry, complicated not just by

the difficulties of transmitting in multipath fading channels, but also

by interference from other users of the same frequency band. The

latter is of increasing concern, especially as more and more wireless

applications are refined. Visible light communication offers a real

alternative to radio based communications. The spectrum is free,

plentiful, and the cost of implementation is actually less than

equivalent radio technology. This technology also saves a lot of

energy.

An indoor visible light communication is mathematically modeled

and the system is simulated with the help of MATLAB software. The

received power distributions and power contour plots for a practical

indoor VLC link is obtained. By employing a holographic light

shaping diffuser, the power distribution is made uniform. Thus the

coverage area is extended further in indoor VLC environment.

Visible light communication system provides advantages including

ubiquitous computing, highly secure data transmission, very high

data, dual functionality of illumination and communication, low cost

of maintenance, low power consumption, safety and reliability. The

visible light communication systems can serve either as a disruptive

technology, as optical fiber was to the traditional all-copper long

distance backbone, or as a system to be used in tandem with the

existing wireless infrastructure to provide additional bandwidth.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I express my sincere gratitude to The Almighty who

empowered me to successfully complete the M.Tech. project work,

by showering his abundant grace and mercy. I would like to add

heartfelt words for the people who helped me a lot in the completion

of my project. I express my honor, respect, deep gratitude and

regards to my guide Mrs. Swapna Davies for her kind guidance and

constant supervision as well as for providing necessary information

regarding the seminar. I am highly indebted to Mr. Jaison Jacob,

Head of Department Electronics and Communication Engineering,

for guiding me all throughout the process. I would like to express my

heartfelt gratitude to Mr. Walter Joseph and Dr. Deepti Das Krishna

for their valuable advice and timely help. I would like to

acknowledge Mrs. Anu Mathew for the inspiration and warm

encouragement. I would like to express the deepest appreciation to

my family and friends for their abiding love and prayers. Their

unconditional support is invaluable.

REFERENCES

[1] I. Lee, M. Sim, and F. Kung, “A dual-receiving visible-light communication

system under time-variant non-clear sky channel for intelligent

transportation system,” in Networks and Optical Communications (NOC),

2011 16th European Conference, pp. 153 –156, July 2011.

[2] D. Wu, Z. Ghassemlooy, H. LeMinh, S. Rajbhandari and Y.S. Kavian,

―Power Distribution and Q-factor Analysis of Diffuse Cellular Indoor

Visible Light Communication Systems‖, in Networks and Optical

Communications (NOC),16th European Conference, 2011.

[3] Kavehrad, M.,“Sustainable energy-efficient wireless applications using

light”, IEEE Communications Magazine, Volume 48, Issue 12, pp. 66 - 73,

December 2010

[4] H.Q.Nguyen, J.H.Choi, ‖A MATLAB-based simulation program for indoor

visible light communication system‖, Communication Systems,

Networks and Digital Signal Processing, Optical Wireless Communication

Conference (OWC-5, CSNDSP),IEEE, 2010.

[5] Miya, Y. Kajikawa, ―Base station layout support system for indoor visible

light communication‖, International Symposium on Communications and

Information Technologies (ISCIT), Conference, pp. 661-666 IEEE, 2010.

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Author Profile:

Nitin Chacko is currently pursuing M.Tech. degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering (Specialization in Communication Engineering) at Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology, Cochin. Phone: +919995975963 E-mail: [email protected]

Swapna Davies is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering at Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology, Cochin. E-mail: [email protected]