Open AccessSaturation compensation for visible light communication with off-the-shelf detectors
Author(s) -
Weijie Liu,
Zhiwei Xu,
Xianqing Jin
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.422478
Subject(s) - optics , detector , photodetector , attenuation , waveform , bit error rate , physics , compensation (psychology) , optical communication , saturation (graph theory) , computer science , telecommunications , voltage , mathematics , psychology , channel (broadcasting) , combinatorics , psychoanalysis , quantum mechanics
A photodetector may get saturated if the incident optical power approaches the detector saturation threshold. In such a case, a visible light communication (VLC) system fails to recover the useful transmitted signals. We introduce a saw waveform based response characterization technique when an off-the-shelf avalanche photo-diode (APD) is deployed. Subsequently, we present two saturation compensation methods, namely the optical attenuation and gain reduction. We analytically conclude that the latter outperforms the former in terms of signal to noise ratio. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods in improving the bit error rate (BER) and error vector magnitude (EVM) performances in the presence of strong ambient radiation and detector noise. In addition, optimization of the APD internal gain and joint employment of the two compensation methods are discussed.