VLC communication system using white LED setup is realized with the help of optisytem

16.0.1 .The pseudo random data sequence is generated from the BER test set with a referance bit
rate. This data sequence is converted into I and Q symbols using QAM sequence generator. The
symbols are taken as different amplitude levels in both in-phase (I) and quadrature phase (q)
using M-ary sequence generators. The I and Q symbols of QAM are modulated individually with
RF subcarriers in OFDM modulator. The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) points should be atleast
double the numbers of subcarrier utilized for the above. FFT points set subcarrier positions
centered at DC or 0 Hz. Modulation from GHz range of frequencies are taken for lower rate sub
carriers tones. The position array in OFDM modulator sets the strating point of the subcarrier
from the range of carrier or the position array aranges the position of subcarriers from the central
frequeency of the OFDM spectra. In order to maintain the bandwidth of the OFDM spectra the
position array should be half of the number of subcarriers. Then the OFDM modulated signals
are further filtered with low pass raised cosine roll-off filter which will shape of OFDM output
pulses and minimise the inter symbol interferance (ISI). The generated OFDM signals are further
up converted to the RF carrier of 512 GHz using quadrature modulator. The electrocal signal at
quadrature modulator is rescaled or dc biased to an optimum level in order to directly drive the
hite LED sources. The White LED establishes the connection with photo detector which is
located at few meters away from the transmitter in the free space.

Bit Error Rate (BER):

Bit Error Rate (BER) is a measure of the number of bit errors that occur in a given number of bit
transmissions. It is usually expressed as ratio.

For example, if 5 bit errors occur in one million bit transferred, the BER is 5/1000000 or 5 ×10−6
.

BER is a measure of the quality of the transmitting device, the receiver, the transmission path
and its environment as it takes into consideration factors such as noise, jitter, attenuation, fading,
and any error detection and correction schemes used in the interface standard.

BER is measured by applying a pseudorandom continuous NRZ (non return to zero) bit stream to
the interface, counting the bit errors and comparing the transmitting to the received data then
computing the ratio.
BER testing is generally not used with low speed interfaces. It is an essential test for high speed
interfaces.

Bit Error Rate Test Set (BERT):

The BER Test Set (BERT) performs the direct error counting for one more sweep iterations of a
defined sequence length of bits. From this data it is possible to determine the bit error rate (BER)
for each iteration and the running average of BERs. BER data is also provided for X, Y and X+Y
polarization channels.

Prior to performing the BER analysis of a system, it’s important to determine if guard bits and
leading/trailing zeros will be needed.

For the case of a single polarization system the BER is

Errors
BER=
Sequence Length h−2 ×GuardBits

For the case of a dual polarization system the BER is

XErrors+YErrors
BER=
Sequence Lengt h−2 ×GuardBits

The BER is also provided for the X and Y polarization channels as follows

XErrors
BER X =
( Sequence Lengt h−2 ×GuardBits)/2

YErrors
BERY =
¿¿

Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM):

Quadrature Amplitude Modulation, QAM utilizes both amplitude and phase components to
provide a form of modulation that is able to provide high levels of spectrum usage efficiency.

QAM, quadrature amplitude modulation has been used for some analogue transmissions
including AM stereo transmissions, but it is for data applications where it has come into its own.
It is able to provide a highly effective form of modulation for data and as such it is used in
everything from cellular phones to Wi-Fi and almost every other form of high speed data
communications system.

QAM sequence generator:

With the QAM sequence generator, the bit sequence is split into two parallel subsequences, each
can be transmitted in two quadrature carriers when building a QAM modulator. This is achieved
by using a serial to parallel converter.

Square QAM maps:

When transmitting information, we can vary the amplitude of a signal according to the source
symbols. For each output port, the amplitude takes one of the values from the set of amplitudes.
a 1=( 2i−1−M ) , i=1,2 , … . M
Where M is the number of possible sequence of binary digits.
M =2h /2
Where h is the number of bits per symbol. The equivalent QAM set is given by the square of M.
This means if:
h = 2, M = 2 then we have a 4-QAM.
h = 4, M = 4 then we have a 16-QAM.
h = 6, M = 8 then we have 64-QAM.
h = 8, M = 1then we have 256-QAM.
Star and Circular QAM maps.
Star and Circular constellations can also be produced by the QAM sequence generator. These are
defined with the Constellation map and Star and Circular Level radii parameters
Both of these codes act as n-level PSK. In circular QAM however, every second level will have a
counter-clockwise rotation of:
π
2m/ n
Where m is the total number of bits for this format and n is the number of levels.

Non-Square QAM maps:

Since the 32 = 25, 128 = 27 are odd powers of 2, there is no perfectly square constellation. The
best that can be done is a square with the corners removed.
User Defined QAM maps:
When User defined I-Q map is selected, the component will allocate the I-Q amplitudes based on
the I and Q amplitudes contained in the I-Q amplitudes MxN parameters array. When this feature
is selected, the user will be able to define both even and odd bits per symbol settings.
M-ary pulse generator:
Generates multilevel pulses according to the M-ary signal input.
This model generates pulses according to:
b , 0 ≤t <t 1

{
v out ( t )= av ¿ ( t )+ b ,t 1 ≤t <t 1 +t c
b , t 1+t c ≤t <T

Where v ¿is the input M-ary signal.

a is the linear gain.
b is the parameter bias.
T is the bit period.
t cis the duty cycle.
t 1is the pulse position.
Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM):
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a technique for transmitting large
amounts of digital data over a radio wave. The technology works by splitting the radio signal
into multiple smaller sub-signals that are then transmitted simultaneously at different frequencies
to the receiver.
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexer is a multi-carrier transmission technique, which
divides the available spectrum into many carriers, each one being modulated by a low rate data
stream. The following diagram describes the different parts of the OFDM Modulator Measured
component.
The input data can be in different modulations formats, for example: BPSK, QPSK, QAM, etc.
This input serial symbol stream is shifted into a parallel format. Then the data is transmitted in
parallel by assigning each symbol to one carrier in the transmission.
After mapping the spectrum, an inverse Fourier transform is used to find the corresponding time
waveform. The cyclic prefix (guard period) can then be added to start each symbol.
The component allows the introduction of a cyclic extension of the symbol transmitted or a
guard time with zero transmission. The parameter Number of prefix points defines how many
points will be used in the guard period.
Different interpolation techniques (Step, Linear, and Cubic) can be used to function as the
digital-to-analog converter. After the DAC, the parallel data is shifted back into the serial symbol
stream. An internal smoothing filer is applied depending on whether the parameter “Smoothing
filter” is enabled or not.
Quadrature modulator:
The Quadrature Modulator implements a quadrature analog amplitude modulator. The output
signal is modulated according to the following equation.
v out ( t )=G [ I ( t ) cos ( 2 π f c t+ ∅ c )−Q(t )sin ⁡(2 π f c t+ ∅ c ) ] +b

Where I and Q are the input electrical signals.

G is the parameter gain.
b is the Bias.
f cis the carrier frequency.
∅ c is the phase of the carrier.
Free Space Optics (FSO):
This component models a free space optics ( FSO) channel. It is a subsystem of two telescopes
and the free space channel between them. It is best suited for the modeling of line of sight free
space terrestrial links.
This component allows for simulation of free space optical links. The component is a subsystem
of transmitter telescope, free space and receiver telescope. Parameter range defines the
propagation distance between transmitter and receiver telescope. The attenuation of the laser
power in depends on two main parameters: Attenuation and Geometrical loss. The first
parameter describes the attenuation of the laser power in the atmosphere. The second parameter,
Geometrical loss, occurs due to the spreading of the transmitted beam between the transmitter
and the receiver.
The link equation is
d 2R R
P Recieved =PTransmitted 2
10−α
(d T +θR) 10
Where:
d R : Receiver aperture diameter (m)
d T : Transmitter aperture diameter (m)
θ: Beam divergence (mrad)
R: Range (km)
α: Atmospheric attenuation (dB/km)
The user can also specify the transmitter and receiver losses due to fiber-telescope interface and
coupling efficiencies (parameters Transmitter loss and Receiver loss) . Additional losses due to
scintillation, mis-pointing, and others can be specified by the parameter Additional losses.
Parameter propagation delay allows for calculation of the delay between transmitter and receiver.
Scintillation is caused almost exclusively by small temperature variations in the random medium,
resulting in index-of-refraction fluctuations (i.e., optical turbulence).
If the parameter intensity scintillation is enabled, either a Gamma-Gamma distribution or Log-
Normal distribution can be used to model atmospheric fading.
Light Emitting Diode (LED):
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits visible light when an electric
current passes through it. The light is not particularly bright, but in most LEDs it is
monochromatic, occurring at a single wavelength. The mean of the optical power is a function of
the modulation current (input signal). The conversion of the current into optical power is
described by the responsivity of the LED or the Slope efficiency. The Responsivity is calculated
as follows
i(t)
P=η h. f .
q
Where 𝛈 is the quantum efficiency
h is the planck’s constant
f is the emission frequency
q is the electron charge
i(t) is the modulation current signal
The modulated characteristics depend on the electron lifetime and the device of the diode, and
are modeled by the transfer function applied to the current:
1
H (f )=
1+ j2 πf (τ n + τ rc)
Where τ n is the electron life time
τ rc is the RC constant
If the parameter parameterized is selected, the output consist of a single value representing the
average LED output at the frequency output.
PIN photo diode:
The PIN Photodiode component is used to convert an optical signal into an electrical current
based on the device‘s Responsivity. The model includes:
Responsivity (constant, based on a predefined material, or user-defined)
Noise modeling (dark current, thermal noise, shot noise, ASE-ASE, ASE-Sig beating)
Frequency response models (ideal, RC-limited, defined)
The noise model includes three noise calculation settings
Analytical
Numerical (default)
Numerical - Convert noise bins
For the Analytical and Numerical methods, the noise data is calculated and maintained separately
from the signal data (to allow for the independent tracking of noise information) whereas for the
“Numerical - Convert noise bins” method, the noise and sampled signal data are combined into a
single output signal.
The incoming optical signal and noise bins are filtered by an ideal rectangle filter to reduce the
number of samples in the electrical signal. The new sample rate is defined by the parameter
Sample rate. You can define the center frequency, or it can be calculated automatically by
centering the filter at the optical channel with maximum power. If optical noise bins are detected
at the input to the PIN component, the portion that falls inside of the re-sampled signal
bandwidth will be converted to white (Gaussian) noise.

RF Spectrum Analyzer:
This allows the user to calculate and display electrical signals in the frequency domain. It can
display the signal intensity, power spectral density and phase.

After you run a simulation, the visualizers in the project generate graphs and results based on the
signal input. You can access the graphs and results from the Project Browser, from the
Component Viewer, or by double-clicking a visualizer in the Main Layout.

Optical spectrum analyzer:

This visualizer allows the user to calculate and display optical signals in the frequency domain. It
can display the signal intensity, power spectral density, phase, group delay and dispersion for X
and Y polarizations.

After you run a simulation, the visualizers in the project generate graphs and results based on the
signal input. You can access the graphs and results from the Project Browser, from the
Component Viewer, or by double-clicking a visualizer in the Main Layout.

Optical time domain visualizer:

In the time domain, Optisystem translates the optical signal and the power spectral density of the
noise to numerical noise in time domain. Use the tabs at the bottom of the graph to select the
representation that we want to view.

Oscilloscope visualizer:
This visualizer allows the user to calculate and display electrical signals in the time domain. It
can display the signal amplitude and autocorrelation.
 OFDM Modulated VLC system performance (BER, Log of BER) for various bit
rates and link ranges
  link range= 1m link range= 2m
Bit rate (Gbps) BER log of BER BER log of BER
1 0.511108398 -0.291486983 0.501647949 -0.299600959
2 0.502197266 -0.299125656 0.502746582 -0.298650873
5 0.504577637 -0.297072002 0.499633789 -0.301348199
10 0.502563477 -0.298809077 0.49822998 -0.302570143
15 0.501953125 -0.299336838 0.49810791 -0.302676561
20 0.494384766 -0.30593492 0.492797852 -0.307331194
25 0.502563477 -0.298809077 0.501586914 -0.299653802

OFDM Modulated VLC system performance [electrical received signal power and
electrical signal to noise ration (ESNR)] for various bit rates and link ranges
  link range= 1m link range= 2m

Bit rate Received signal Received signal

(Gbps) power (dBm) ESNR (dB) power (dBm) ESNR (dB)
82.0528474 59.5698281
1 71.94148374 5 -79.47317886 5
79.8054365 58.0550681
2 54.01376375 2 -87.40924714 6
76.6083559 55.3063013
5 -66.31304508 2 -84.41932442 9
75.4142134 53.8094976
10 71.73242988 1 -88.62406682 6
75.1971280 54.5490731
15 -72.08383821 6 -80.10810086 7
75.8209014 55.1495532
20 -57.755364 3 -85.0696663 7
76.9595437 55.3679417
25 75.37530711 1 -85.02983851 7
 OFDM Modulated VLC system performance [electrical received signal power and electrical
signal to noise ration (ESNR)] for various bit rates and link ranges
  link range= 1m link range= 2m
Received
Bit rate optical signal Received signal
(Gbps) power (dBm) OSNR (dB) power (dBm) OSNR (dB)
1 1.666171797 98.3338282 -9.7772226044298 90.2227774
2 1.545181114 98.45481889 -9.69366197740657 90.30633802
5 1.653243404 98.3467566 -9.88519742854488 90.11480257
10 1.722779409 98.27722059 -9.84317905179929 90.15682095
15 1.703687351 98.29631265 -9.56410218533087 90.43589781
20 1.625935365 98.37406463 -9.75376384392953 90.24623616
25 1.821682338 98.17831766 -9.8255706515713 90.17442935

Conclusion

We have simulated a White LED visible light communication with OFDM modulation for a
practically measured free space channel parameters. For the analysis of different bit rates and
link ranges using Optisystem tool, our designed system can support up to 2 m of link range with
a bit rate of 10 Gbps.
However, this work has a limitation of Line of Sight communication from White LED. But,
multiple reflections from the walls and corners are also received by the receiver in practical
scenario which would drastically vary the power and phase of the received signal in this Non-
Line of sight (NLOS) case.
Hence there is lot of scope for furthering this research for NLOS along with MIMO cases in
future to ascertain the reality of the signal transmission in VLC.