Bandwidth-Efficient Precoding Scheme with Flicker Mitigation for OFDM-Based Visible Light Communications

Recently, orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) was applied to VLC systems owing to its high rate capability. On the other hand, a real-valued unipolar OFDM signal for VLC significantly reduces bandwidth efficiency. For practical implementation, channel estimation is required for data demodulation, which causes a further decrease in spectral efficiency. In addition, the large fluctuation of an OFDM signal results in poor illumination quality, such as chromaticity changes. This paper proposes a spectrally efficient method based on a hidden-pilot-aided precoding technology for VLC with less flickering than a conventional OFDM-based method. This approach can obtain channel information without any loss of bandwidth efficiency while ensuring illumination quality by reducing the flickering effect of an OFDM-based VLC. The simulation results show that the proposed method provides a 6.4% gain in bandwidth efficiency with a 4% reduction in flicker compared to a conventional OFDM-based method.