Packet error rate analysis of IM/DD systems for ultraviolet scattering communications

Ultraviolet scattering communication has the capability of none-line-of-sight transmission, but it is limited by low receiving power and data communication rate. In this paper, digital pulse interval modulation (DPIM) and dual head pulse interval modulation (DHPIM), which have variable intensity modulation order and no requirement for symbol synchronization, along with on-off keying (OOK) modulation and pulse-position modulation (PPM) are analyzed with packet error rates for ultraviolet scattering communications. To match with the photon counting detection system, a detection model of Poisson counting plus Gaussian photon multiplication and thermal noise is adopted. Using this model, an accurate threshold equation is derived. This adaptive threshold minimizes the packet error rate according to power, rates and other parameters in system structure. Simulated packet error rates of OOK, PPM, DPIM and DHPIM are compared in different scattering channels in this paper.