Performance evaluation of space modulation techniques in VLC systems

In this paper, the Bit Error Rate (BER) performance of three major space modulation techniques in a Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) Visible Light Communication (VLC) system is studied. The considered space modulation techniques are Optical Spatial Modulation (OSM); Optical Generalized Spatial Modulation (OGeSM); and Optical Multi-Stream Spatial Modulation (OMS-SM). The space modulation techniques are evaluated against two benchmark systems: Optical Spatial MultipleXing (OSMX) and Optical Repetition Coding (ORC). The performance assessment, for both the space modulation schemes and the benchmark systems, is undertaken using simulation and analytical results. For the considered system setup, it is concluded that, in relative low Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), OSM offers the best performance. Whereas, in relative high SNR and for high spectral efficiency, OMS-SM is the most efficient scheme in terms of BER.