Light-emitting diodes constitute a low-cost choice for optical transmitters in medium-bit-rate optical links. An example for the latter is local-area networks. However, one of the disadvantageous properties of light-emitting diodes is their nonlinear characteristic, which may limit the data transmission performance of the system, especially in the case of multiple subcarrier modulation, which is starting to attract attention in various applications, such as visible-light communications and data transmission over polymer optical fibers. In this paper, the influence of the nonlinear transfer function of the light-emitting diodes on discrete multitone modulation is studied. The transfer function describes the dependence of the emitted optical power on the driving current. Analytical expressions for an idealized link were derived, and these equations allow the estimation of the power of the noise-like, nonlinear crosstalk between the orthogonal subcarriers. The crosstalk components of the quadrature and in-phase subcarrier components were found to be independent and approximately normally distributed. Using these results, the influence of light-emitting-diode nonlinearity on the performance of the system was investigated. The main finding was that systems using a small number of subcarriers and/or high QAM level exhibit a large signal-to-noise-ratio penalty due to the nonlinear crosstalk. The model was applied to systems with white and resonant-cavity light-emitting diodes. It is shown that the nonlinearity may severely limit the performance of the system, particularly in the case of resonant-cavity light-emitting diodes, which exhibit a strong nonlinear behavior.

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Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) constitute a low-cost alternative for optical data transmission of up to ~ 1 Gb/s. What differentiates such applications from, e.g., backhaul optical networks, is the fact that apart from their data throughput, LEDs are generally not as well characterized by the manufacturer as, for example, optical fiber amplifiers. While for simple modulation formats, this lack of knowledge is not a severe impediment; in any other situation, one may face rather complex behaviors of commercial LEDs. In this paper, the main electro-optical characteristics of LEDs are discussed, and it is shown that some popular simple nonlinear models available in the literature are inadequate in describing their dynamics. As a way out of this malady, we present a reverse-engineering approach that is based on Volterra expansions of the electro-optical characteristic function of LEDs, enabling the introduction of a realistic empirical model for commercial devices.

Optics InfoBase is the Optical Society's online library for flagship journals, partnered and copublished journals, and recent proceedings from OSA conferences.

Indoor optical wireless systems provide an attractive alternative for realizing next generation Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs). In this paper, the performance of diffuse optical wireless systems, employing Space Time Block Coding (STBC) techniques, is numerically investigated, accurately taking into account, the indoor channel impulse response and the characteristics of ambient light and thermal noises at the receiver. Discrete Multitone modulation (DMT) is used to mitigate the effect of intersymbol interference due to the channel's impulse response. The performance of STBC systems, employing two transmit elements, is compared against Single Input/ Single Output (SISO) and Maximum Ratio Combining (MRC) systems operating with the same total optical transmitter power. It is shown that STBC techniques can be used to increase the capacity of diffuse optical wireless systems, improve their coverage and decrease the required optical power at the transmitter. These results demonstrate the usefulness of Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) techniques in the realization of optical WLANs.