Demonstration of gigabits-per-second two-user NOMA in laser-based indoor optical wireless communication

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate a two user non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) based indoor optical wireless communication link with gigabit-per-second data throughput. MATLAB based simulations are carried out to characterize the indoor power profile and bit-error rate (BER) performance. The experimental implementation consists of directly modulating a near infrared laser to transmit the superposition coded (SC) NOMA symbols with signals received using two separate receivers, which denote the two spatially separated users. The received signals captured using an oscilloscope are decoded using successive interference cancelation (SIC) technique implemented offline in MATLAB. The experimentally measured channel responses are used in simulations to compare the experimental and simulation results, showing good agreement between the two. Optical communication is demonstrated with overall data throughput of 1.02 Gbps with high fidelity interference cancellation. The data-rates achieved here are the highest reported for conventional NOMA implementation in optical wireless systems.