Performance evaluation of experimental 50-Mb/s diffuse infrared wireless link using on-off keying with decision-feedback equalization

We report an experimental nondirected optical link for short-range, indoor data transmission at 50 Mb/s. The system uses on-off keying (OOK) and achieves low bit-error rates (BERs) in the presence of intersymbol interference, background light noise, and shadowing, with a range of 2.9 m in a skylit room. The transmitter produces an eye-safe Lambertian pattern at 806 nm with an average power of 474 mW. The receiver utilizes a hemispherical concentrator with a hemispherical bandpass optical filter, a 1-cm² silicon p-i-n photodiode, and a high-impedance hybrid preamplifier to achieve a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). A high-pass filter is used to mitigate fluorescent light noise, with quantized feedback removing the resulting baseline wander. A decision-feedback equalizer provides resistance to intersymbol interference due to multipath. The system and its components are characterized, and compared to theory. We observe that decision-feedback equalization yields a reduction of multipath power penalties that is in good agreement with theory