Practical space shift keying VLC system

Abstract

This paper presents results of a practical implementation of a spatial shift keying (SSK) visible light communication (VLC) system. This is the first practical proof-of-concept realtime implementation of SSK for VLC to the best knowledge of the authors. The system uses four transmitter light emitting diodes (LEDs) to encode information, and four receiver photo diodes (PDs) to decode the spatial signatures and decode the incoming data signal. The achieved bit error ratio (BER) of less than 2 × 10-3 allows for error-free communication if forward error correction (FEC) is to be applied. The main challenge with practical implementations of SSK in VLC is identified, namely maintaining symbol separation in the received constellation, and solutions are proposed.