Design of MIMO-Visible Light Communication Transceiver Using Maximum Rank Distance Codes

This paper is aimed at comparing the performance of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) schemes applied to the indoor visible light communication (VLC) system. The MIMO schemes considered for this paper are repetition coding (RC), space-time block codes (STBCs), and spatial multiplexing (SMP). For MIMO design, the current system makes use of unique algebraic codes, i.e., maximum rank distance (MRD) codes in this connection. Two different configurations (2 x 1 and 2 x 2) are taken into consideration with distinct transmitters' spacing. Simulation results are presented and a comparative analysis of the current system with an existing system is given mainly in terms of bit error rate (BER), data-rate, and transmission range. The simulation results are validated by the physical implementation of the system using NI cDAQ module programmed in LabVIEW. The simulation and experimentation results indicate that the RC scheme with significant diversity gain provides more robustness as compared to other MIMO schemes; however, the RC exhibits poor multiplexing gain, and hence, it is not spectral efficient. As its counterpart, the STBC and SMP are used that can increase both the capacity and reliability at the cost of slightly reduced transmission range.