High-speed quasi-balanced detection OFDM in visible light communication

In this paper, we proposed and experimentally demonstrated a novel quasi-balanced detection (QBD) technique in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) visible light communication (VLC) system. By employing opposite signals to odd and even consecutive symbols, the nonlinearity distortion, and direct current can be eliminated efficiently. Additionally, the sensitivity of receiver can also be improved by 3dB, thus a longer transmission distance and high-order modulation formats can be received. We achieved physical data rate of 2.1-Gb/s enabled by wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM), pre- and post-equalization, and the resulting bit error ratios (BERs) were below the FEC limit of 3.8x10(-3). The distance was above 2.5 meters that was long enough for indoor communication. Compared with conventional direct-detection optical (DDO-OFDM) and asymmetrically-clipped optical (ACO-OFDM), the BER can be enhanced by 22.2dB and 20.8dB, respectively, which shows great potential in short range and low cost access network.