Optical-OFDM VLC System: Peak-to-Average Power Ratio Enhancement and Performance Evaluation

Visible Light Communication (VLC) systems are favoured for numerous applications due to their extensive bandwidth and resilience to electromagnetic interference. This study delineates various constructions of Optical Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (O-OFDM) approaches employed in VLC systems. Various factors are elaborated within this context to ascertain a more effective O-OFDM approach, including constellation size, data arrangement and spectral efficiency, power efficiency, computational complexity, bit error rate (BER), and peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). This paper seeks to assess these approaches’ BER and PAPR performance across varying modulation orders. Regrettably, in VLC systems based on OFDM methodology, the superposition of multiple subcarriers results in a high PAPR. Therefore, this study aims to diminish the PAPR in VLC systems, enhancing system performance. We propose a non-distorting PAPR reduction technique, namely the Vandermonde-Like Matrix (VLM) precoding technique. The suggested technique is implemented across various O-OFDM approaches, including DCO-OFDM, ADO-OFDM, ACO-OFDM, FLIP-OFDM, ASCO-OFDM, and LACO-OFDM. Notably, this method does not affect the system’s data rate because it does not require the mandatory transmission of side information. Furthermore, this technique can decrease the PAPR without impacting the system’s BER performance. This study compares the proposed PAPR reduction technique against established methods documented in the literature to evaluate their efficacy and validity rigorously.