Multi-user adaptive orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing system for indoor wireless optical communications

An adaptive orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) system is proposed for multi-user communications over indoor wireless optical channels. The designed system uses multi-user least-squares detection techniques applied to space-division multiple access and OFDM schemes, in conjunction with angle-diversity reception. The system, which does not present an excessive increase in complexity with respect to the previous schemes, can support high bit rates for multiple users, beyond 100 Mbits/s. It also mitigates the channel fluctuations induced when either the space distribution or the number of emitters and receivers varies. The performance of the new proposed scheme is compared with that of a non-adaptive multi-user system and an adaptive single-user system, both described in the previous works, when they face similar environmental situations. The obtained results show a significant enhancement with respect to both the previous multi-user system and the adaptive single-user one, since the new scheme allows adaptively managing the system throughput on a multi-user environment.