Experimental MIMO VLC Systems Using Tricolor LED Transmitters and Receivers

Abstract

This paper shows experimental systems using R/G/B LEDs as both the emitters and narrowband filterless photodetectors to realize multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) visible light communications. Among 9 tested color-pair links from R/G/B LEDs to R/G/B LEDs, the R-R link and B-G link exhibit the best quality. With a 2 times 2 MIMO setup, the implemented OOK system can achieve a data rate of 40kbps and 20 kbps under half duplex and full duplex designs respectively, without any amplifying and equalizing circuits. When LEDs are used as photodetectors, the measured LED impedance spectrum versus frequency implies that the performance of the LED-to-LED communication link can be significantly improved via an impedancematching amplifying and equalization circuit. Capabilities of simultaneous transmission and reception by an LED without electronic switching are experimentally observed. This feature enables continuous full duplex communication and offers an advantage over time division multiplexing.