Experimental demonstration of IDMA-OFDM for visible light communications

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate a multicarrier interleave division multiple access (IDMA) scheme for bidirectional visible light communications using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), which has the advantages of good tolerance against multi-path, high spectral efficiency and excellent transmission performance. The generated IDMA signals are modulated on OFDM subcarriers and the different users are separated by the interleavers. When compared with orthogonal frequency domain multiple access, IDMA-OFDM offers increased transmission spans of 30 and 50 cm at a bit error rate (BER) of 10-3 in the cases of two and four users, respectively.