ICTON 2016 Tu.B2.

Three Dimensional Modulation for Improved Transmission

Capacity in White LED based Optical Wireless Link
Yong-Yuk Won*, Sang Min Yoon**, and Dongsun Seo*, Member, IEEE
*Department of Electronic Engineering, Myongji University, Myongi-ro 116, 17058 Yongin, South Korea
**School of Computer Science, Kookmin University, Jeongneung-ro 77, 02707 Seoul, South Korea
Tel: (82) 31 330 6369, Fax: (82) 31 330 6977, e-mail: bluejerry@mju.ac.kr
ABSTRACT
A three dimensional modulation, which can improve the channel capacity of visible optical wireless transmission,
is proposed, where it is implemented by the use of the simultaneous modulation of amplitude, phase, and
frequency without the request of additional physical bandwidth compared with two dimensional modulation such
as quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). Using the proposed technique, a 64-ary amplitude, phase, and
frequency modulation (APFM) is accomplished by combining 4-frequency shift keying (FSK) and 16-QAM.
Using an experimental optical wireless link based on white light emitting diode (LED), the 64-ary APFM signal
with 1-MHz channel bandwidth is transmitted wirelessly at 106 symbols/s and then only two errors are observed.
This means that 6 bits/symbol can be transmitted using the proposed technique.
Keywords: three dimensional optical modulation, optical wireless transmission, white light emitting diode,
frequency shift keying, quadrature amplitude modulation.

1. INTRODUCTION
A white light emitting diode (LED) has played a leading role of the illumination in housing spaces instead of
fluorescent lamps as well as incandescent light bulbs. The white LED can also deliver the various kinds of data
to access users by wireless because of the properties of semiconductor materials with optoelectronic effect [1].
The data rate of optical wireless transmission, which is based on white LEDs, needs to be comparable with that
in usual services such as Wi-Fi and long term evolution (LTE) in order to be available commercially. However,
most of white LEDs for people to buy commercially have frequency response of below 10 MHz [2]. Therefore,
various researches have been accomplished to increase the bandwidth efficiency of its wireless transmission link
until now [3-5].
In this paper, a new optical modulation technique focusing on the improvement of its channel capacity is
proposed. It is implemented by the combination of frequency shift keying (FSK) and quadrature amplitude
modulation (QAM). We call the proposed technique amplitude, phase, and frequency modulation (APFM)
because they are employed at the same time. The aim of the proposed technique is to increase the channel
capacity without the request of additional physical bandwidth when being compared with conventional
modulation technique (two dimensional, in other words, the simultaneous modulation of amplitude and phase)
such as QAM. Similar idea of combining both frequency and phase modulation was reported in [6], where 2-
frequency and 2- or 4-phase coding were used to investigate the performance of a trellis coded modulation
system. However, it did not show the transmission performance of system using three factors (amplitude, phase,
and frequency) simultaneously. To the best of our knowledge, not only is the APFM technique proposed for the
first time by us but also the increase of channel capacity using the APFM technique in white LED based optical
wireless transmission link is reported for the first time in this conference paper.
For the experimental verification of the proposed technique, the white LED based optical wireless link using
a 64-ary AFPM is implemented by combining 4-ary FSK and 16-ary QAM at the same time and then the bit
error rate of 64-ary AFPM symbols is measured to evaluate the performance of the proposed technique.

2. THREE DIMENSIONAL MODULATION & DEMODULATION

2.1 Generation of APFM Signal
Figure 1 shows the block diagram of 64-ary APFM symbol generation. A single symbol of 64-ary APFM signal
is generated using six bits (F1, F2, I1, I2, Q1, and Q2) of random binary sequences at a time by a bit splitter.
The first two bits (F1, and F2) are allocated for 4-FSK, while the other four bits for 16-QAM. Each carrier with
sample points of n, which is sampled digitally, is generated by the use of digital signal processing (DSP) based
off-line processing. One of all carriers (f1, f2, f3, and f4) is allocated to one of 4-FSK symbols encoded by two
bits (F1, and F2) using DSP based software switch. Next, the FSK-modulated carriers are converted into in-
phase carriers and quadrature ones, respectively. Two of four bits (I1, and I2) are mapped for in-phase
component of 16-QAM symbol while the others of four bits (Q1, and Q2) for quadrature one. Accordingly,
64-APFM signal is generated by the simultaneous and sequential modulation of 4-FSK and 16-QAM.

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DSP based
Digitally sampled software switch
2 to 4 level Balance
Carrier, f1 modulator
converter

Digitally sampled In-phase

Carrier, f2 carrier
Bandpass
filter
Digitally sampled Quadrature 90°
Carrier, f3 carrier
2 to 4 level Balance 64-ary AFPM output
Digitally sampled
converter modulator
Carrier, f4

Allocation of each carrier

Binary input data F1 F2 I1 I2 Q1 Q2 according to two bits (F1, F2)
Bit splitter 00 f1 11 f4 10 f3 01 f2

n sample points

64-ary AFPM one symbol

Figure 1. Modulation of 64-APFM signals.

2.2 Demodulation of APFM Signal
The whole process of extracting the binary sequences from the 64-APFM signal is accomplished by the inverse
one of 64-APFM technique.
Our proposed FSK is a digitized one, not electrical FSK. Figure 2(a) shows the functional diagram of our
proposed APFM demodulation. Figure 2(b) shows the demodulation process. Unlike the existing FSK technique,
a single 64-APFM symbol is correlated with only one carrier in consecutive order. In other words, the other
carriers are all off while a single 64-APFM symbol is being correlated with only one carrier and then its
correlation value is calculated. Sequentially, each correlation value (r1, r2, r3, and r4) is produced and stored as
shown in Fig. 2(b). Next, the largest correlation value (r) is chosen among the stored ones and then a 4-FSK
symbol, which is allocated to carrier with the biggest correlation value, is produced. Next, the demodulation of
16-QAM signal is accomplished using the carrier with the biggest correlation value. Therefore, our proposed
technique is an ICI robust FSK scheme because only one carrier is used to demodulate a 4-FSK signal in
sequence. Also it doesn’t need to be an orthogonal modulation because all carriers are not utilized to be
correlated with a received 64-APFM signal simultaneously. After each demodulation process is completed, two
kinds of decoded symbols have merged in order to form a single 64-APFM symbol with the help of bit combiner.
Finally, binary output sequences are produced after the accumulation of several 64-APFM symbols.

00 f1 11 f4 10 f3 f2
Oscillator

Oscillator

Oscillator

Oscillator

01
freq. f1

freq. f2

freq. f3

freq. f4

n sample points
Electronic/
Software
switch Detector DSP based correlation with f1 carrier
All r are 4-FSK symbols (other carriers are off) 1. All correlation values (r1,r2,r3,r4) are
t=T (F1, F2)
T
stored calculated and stored 4-FSK
∫ ( • )dt
0 r1, r2, r3, r4
and then
symbols
choose
the largest r DSP based correlation with f2 carrier 2. the largest correlation value (r) is chosen
F1 F2 I1 I2 Q1 Q2

4-FSK demodulation (other carriers are off)

Binary output
Bit combiner

64-APFM output sequences

t=T
In-phase
T
∫ ( • )dt ASK
DSP based correlation with f3 carrier
(other carriers are off) Selection of carrier with the largest r
0
decision
Multiplexer

90° 16-QAM symbols

DSP based correlation with f4 carrier 16-QAM
(other carriers are off) 16-QAM demodulation symbols
t=T (I1, I2, Q1, Q2)
T Qudarature
∫ ( • )dt
0 ASK
decision
ICI free Non-orthogonal APFM demodulation
16-QAM demodulation

(a) (b)
Figure 2. Demodulation of 64-APFM signals, (a) Functional diagram of 64-APFM demodulation, (b) Flow
chart of ICI-free and non-orthogonal 4-FSK demodulation

3. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
Figure 3 shows the experimental setup of optical wireless link based on white LED, where it was implemented in
order to verify experimentally the increase of the number of bit per symbol within a limited channel bandwidth
using the proposed APFM technique. We implemented an experimental test-bed at a data rate of below 10 Mbit/s
to check the improvement of channel capacity using the proposed APFM technique conceptually. The relatively

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low data rate was chosen for simplicity. As shown in the inset of Fig. 3, the 3-dB frequency response of the
implemented optical wireless link was 10 MHz. The 64-APFM signal was generated by MATLAB®.
The number of 4-FSK symbols and 16-QAM symbols, which are used to produce the 64-APFM waveform, was
all 106. The 64-APFM waveform with the 100 samples per symbol was produced using offline digital processing.
Therefore, the number of its sampling point was 108. The generated 64-APFM waveform was separated into two
sub-waveforms, in-phase 64-APFM waveform (I ch) and quadrature 64-APFM waveform (Q ch). They were
converted to an electrical waveform by an arbitrary waveform generator (AWG: Tektronix 5012C) that sampled
at 100 Msample/s and then were transmitted separately. Center frequencies of four RF subcarriers, which are
generated by the offline digital processing in order to modulate 4-FSK symbols, are 10 MHz, 10.1 MHz,
10.2 MHz, and 10.3 MHz, respectively. Note that the frequency spacing among four RF subcarriers is much
smaller than the symbol rate, showing that the 4-FSK increases negligibly the modulated signal bandwidth.
The spectrum of the converted electrical 64-APFM waveform ranged from 9.5 MHz to 10.5 MHz. The electrical
APFM waveform from AWG was equalized according to the first order equalization, and then amplified by
a low nose amplifier (LNA: 25-dB electrical gain, 3-dB bandwidth of 1 GHz). Our used equalizer was designed
as a first order high pass circuit to compensate the channel response of a white LED itself. The wireless
transmission length was 1 meter from LED to 100-MHz APD module (Hamamatsu, C5331). A biconvex glass
lens (Thorlab, LB1723, focal length: 60 mm) was used to increase the intensity of received light in front of APD
and 200-lx was measured. After the wireless APFM waveform was received at the optical wireless receiver (Rx),
it was captured by a digital phosphor oscilloscope (DPO: Tektronix 7200B) and sampled at 500 Msample/s.
The random binary output sequences was obtained using the simultaneous demodulation of 4-FSK and 16-QAM
in the offline digital processing based on MATLAB®. The comparison of bit error rate (BER) between input and
output APFM symbols was performed to check whether there would be the transmission error or not.
The crosstalk among four RF subcarriers used for 4-FSK was also investigated according to the frequency
spacing among four RF subcarriers.
Random binary input signal
Random binary output signal
Bit splitter
AFP demodulation
2 bits Offline digital
4-ary FSK
Bit combiner
modulation processing 2 bits 4 bits
4 bits 4-ary FSK 16-ary QAM
16-ary QAM demodulation demodulation
modulation
AFP modulation
1m wireless 40
DPO
Response of optical

AWG
wireless link (dB)

transmission length 30
I ch Q ch
dc source L Convex Lens 20
1st order E 10
Equalizer LNA D 100MHz APD
0
Optical wireless Tx Optical wireless Rx 0 5 10 15 20
Frequency (MHz)
Figure 3. Optical wireless link based on white LED used to verify the proposed APFM technique. Inset: the
measured channel response of the link.

4. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Figure 4 shows the change of generated error when the number of the received 64-APFM symbols increases
from 102 to 106 at a 1-MHz channel bandwidth. It was measured at the wireless transmission length of 1 meter.
Two insets of Fig. 4 indicate the input and output 64-APFM symbol patterns when the number of 64-APFM
symbol was 100. They were presented in order to verify whether the modulation and demodulation of APFM
would work theoretically or not. The first three waveforms of each 64-APFM symbol patterns show 4-FSK
symbols, 64-APFM in-phase symbols, and 64-APFM quadrature symbols, respectively. Two waveforms from
the bottom show 64-APFM in-phase and quadrature waveforms, respectively. As shown in two kinds of 64-
APFM waveforms, It was found that frequency modulated waveforms were re-modulated by QAM technique.
As shown in two insets, No error was observed in the output 64-APFM symbol patterns compared with its input
patterns in case of 100 symbols. The 64-APFM symbol error was measured repeatedly in order to observe the
increase of error according to the number of 64-APFM symbols as shown in Fig. 4. Two 64-APFM symbol
errors were observed when the number of transmitted 64-APFM symbols was 106. For your information, 106
symbols are located between 216-1 and 217-1 in terms of pseudorandom binary sequence. Therefore, the BER of
2E-6 was measured because 2 errors were produced in case of transmitting 106 symbols. Accordingly, the

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experimental result tells us that the proposed technique allow us to transmit 6 bit per symbol at a physical
bandwidth of 1 MHz. In the proposed technique, crosstalk due to the inter-carrier interference (ICI) among RF
subcarriers used for 4-FSK can be produced as their frequency spacing becomes narrower. It can be regarded as
the main reason of slowing down the performance of the proposed 64-APFM technique. The experimental
results about the ICI impact on the performance of the APFM technique will be presented in this conference.

The number of symbol error 4

2 Input Output

10 1E2 1E3 1E4 1E5 1E6

The number of received 64-APFM symbols
Figure 4. Change of generated error against number of transmitted 64-APFM symbols. Inset: input and output
64-APFM symbol patterns in case of 100 symbols.

5. CONCLUSIONS
A new modulation technique, which can improve the channel capacity of white LED based optical wireless
transmission, was proposed in this paper. It was implemented by combining well-known FSK and QAM
techniques at the same time, without increasing the occupied physical bandwidth due to the usage of FSK.
This three dimensional APFM technique would be extended to arbitrary multi-level modulation to increase
further the bandwidth efficiency of a band-limited system. A 64-APFM waveform was generated by combining
4-FSK and 16-QAM and then was transmitted using a wireless optical link based on white LED. We set the
spacing between FSK subcarriers at 0.1 MHz, corresponding to 1% of the symbol rate at 1 Msymbol/s (6
Mbit/s). Experimental results showed no errors up to 104 symbol transmission and only a couple of errors for the
transmission of 106 symbols. Only two errors were generated at the channel bandwidth of 1 MHz. In this way, 6-
Mbit/s data was successfully transmitted through an optical wireless channel with limited bandwidth of 1 MHz.
The proposed APFM technique is ready to be utilized as a new modulation technique to increase the channel
capacity of data transmission link, such as optical wireless system based on white LED.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was supported by the ICT program of MSIP/IITP, Republic of Korea [#B0101-16-1347].

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