On the throughput of an OFDM-based cellular optical wireless system for an aircraft cabin

In this paper, a cellular optical wireless communication system based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is simulated inside an aircraft cabin. Asymmetrically clipped optical OFDM (ACO-OFDM) and direct-current-biased optical OFDM (DCO-OFDM) transmission schemes are compared in terms of throughput and cell coverage. Cellular networks with wavelength reuse factors of 1 (full reuse), 2 and 3 are modeled, and off-the-shelf optical front-end components are assumed. Signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR) maps are determined via a Monte Carlo ray-tracing (MCRT) global irradiation simulation in a computer-aided design (CAD) cabin model. Due to the use of OFDM, adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) can be applied to the SINR maps to arrive at the spatial throughput. It is shown that throughput within the range of 1.56 - 30 Mbps is achievable with the considered ACO-OFDM system, whereas DCO-OFDM doubles the throughput to 3.13-60 Mbps. In addition, wavelength reuse factors of 3 or higher are needed to ensure full cell support for both transmission schemes.