Advanced modulation format of probabilistic shaping bit loading for 450-NM GAN laser diode based visible light communication

Visible light communication is an emerging high-speed optical wireless communication technology that can be a candidate to alleviate pressure on conventional radio frequency-based technology. In this paper, for the first time, the advanced modulation format of probabilistic shaping (PS) bit loading is investigated in a high data rate visible light communication system based on a 450-nm Gallium Nitride laser diode. The characteristic of the system is discussed and PS bit loading discrete multi-tone modulation helps to raise the spectral efficiency and improve the system performance. Higher entropy can be achieved in the same signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and modulation bandwidth limitation, comparing to bit and power loading. With PS bit loading, an available information rate (AIR) of 10.23 Gbps is successfully achieved at the signal bandwidth of 1.5 GHz in a 1.2 m free space transmission with normalized generalized mutual information above 0.92. And higher AIR can be anticipated with an entropy-loading strategy that fixes the channel characteristic. Experimental results validate that a PS bit loading scheme has the potential to increase the system capacity. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.