Multi-branch Transmitter for Indoor Visible Light Communication Systems

Abstract: One of the main aims of indoor visible light communication (VLC) systems is to deliver a high data rate service in single user and in multiuser scenarios. A key obstacle is the ability of the indoor VLC channel to support high data rates in the scenarios of interest. Here, we assess the potential of a multi-branch transmitter (MBT) and its use to achieve higher data rates in single user and multiuser indoor VLC systems. For the single user VLC system, the performance of the MBT is examined with a wide field of view (W-FOV) receiver and an angle diversity receiver (ADR) while for the multiuser VLC system we evaluate the performance of the MBT with a non-imaging angle diversity receiver (NI-ADR). In addition, for the multiuser VLC system, we propose subcarrier multiplexing (SCM) tones to allocate an optimum transmitter to each user. Furthermore, wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) is examined to support higher data rates for each user while using on-off-keying (OOK) modulation. In addition, the impact of the user's mobility on the multi-user VLC system performance is studied. The effect of diffuse reflections, mobility and lighting constraints are taken into account. In addition, the effect of co-channel interference (CCI) is considered in the multiuser VLC system.