NLOS UV Communications Using M-ary Spectral-Amplitude-Coding

We present an M-ary spectral amplitude code (SAC) modulation technique to improve the performance of free-space optical (FSO) communication systems. Although this approach can be used in any dispersive FSO system, in this paper we focus on non-line of sight (NLOS) ultraviolet (UV) systems relying on atmospheric scattering. Spectral amplitude encoding is applied on a broadband UV source using the same code families for the M-ary alphabet as used previously in SAC optical code division multiple access (OCDMA) systems. A differential structure using two photomultiplier tubes is utilized in conjunction with various demodulation algorithms to decode the received signal. Intersymbol interference (ISI), received beam divergence and shot noise are considered as the main factors limiting the system performance. An upper bound on the bit error probability is presented and compared with simulation results for various geometries and for different code parameters. The maximum bit rate for a fixed bit error probability is calculated in terms of the link length, and results for different alphabet sizes are shown. By sacrificing spectral efficiency without becoming more susceptible to ISI, the proposed system can support higher rates and longer distances for the same performance compared with on-off keying systems.