Optical Beam Steerable Visible Light Communication (VLC) System Supporting Multiple Users Using RGB and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed (OFDM) Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA)

Abstract

In order to achieve high-capacity visible light communication (VLC), five dimensions in physics, including frequency, time, quadrature modulation, space, and polarization can be utilized. Orthogonality should be maintained in order to reduce the crosstalk among different dimensions. In this work, we illustrate a high-capacity 21.01 Gbit/s optical beam steerable VLC system with vibration mitigation based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) signals using red, green, and blue (RGB) laser-diodes (LDs). The OFDM-NOMA can increase the spectral efficiency of VLC signal by allowing high overlapping of different data channel spectra in the power domain to maximize the bandwidth utilization. In the NOMA scheme, different data channels are digitally multiplexed using different levels of power with superposition coding at the transmitter (Tx). Successive interference cancellation (SIC) is then utilized at the receiver (Rx) to retrieve different power multiplexed data channels. The total data rates (i.e., Data 1 and Data 2) achieved by the R/G/B OFDM-NOMA channels are 8.07, 6.62, and 6.32 Gbit/s, respectively, achieving an aggregated data rate of 21.01 Gbit/s. The corresponding average signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of Data 1 in the R, G, and B channels are 9.05, 9.18 and 8.94 dB, respectively, while that of Data 2 in the R, G, and B channels are 14.92, 14.29, and 13.80 dB, respectively.