High-Resolution Dimmable Augmented Spectral-Efficiency Discrete Multi-Tone Architecture Based on Hybrid Pulse-Width Modulation in Visible-Light Communications

Dimming control is an indispensable functionality for visible-light communication (VLC) that enables both illumination and data transmission. However, how to achieve both high-resolution dimming control and spectral-efficient communication is still an open problem. Therefore, a novel high-resolution dimmable augmented spectral-efficiency discrete multi-tone (HD-ASE-DMT) architecture is proposed in this paper. To address the limitation of low dimming resolution in a conventional pulse-width modulation (PWM) scheme, a hybrid PWM mechanism was first designed by combining the inter-symbol and intra-symbol PWM signals, which provided flexible and high-resolution two-tier dimming control. Furthermore, a reconstructed process was conceived to achieve the seamless integration of the hybrid PWM and the spectral-efficient ASE-DMT architecture. As a result, the proposed HD-ASE-DMT architecture maintains full compatibility with legacy ASE-DMT receivers, thus reducing the implementation complexity compared to the existing dimmable modulation schemes. Simulation results demonstrated that a two-orders-of-magnitude improvement in the dimming resolution was achieved by the HD-ASE-DMT architecture. Moreover, the spectral efficiency of the HD-ASE-DMT architecture was improved by 29.3% compared to the conventional scheme.