Triangular PFDR antenna optimisation under the restriction of background noise and multipath propagation in an optical wireless system

Background noise and multipath propagation are the major impairments in indoor optical wireless links. They can introduce heavy distortion in the received optical signal and can degrade the system performance. In this paper, we investigate these effects employing a novel triangular pyramidal fly-eye diversity receiver (PFDR). Original results for fully diffuse optical wireless links that utilize PFDR are presented. Impulse responses and background noise collected on the PFDR faces at various locations on communications floor are evaluated. It is demonstrated that through PFDR field-of-view optimization the directional background interference can be reduced and that the received pulse shape can be improved. Results show a marked improvement in the probability of error when the optimization is done. Moreover, system performance improvement over the conventional diffuse system can be achieved.