PSK to CSK mapping for hybrid systems involving the radio frequency and the visible spectrum

This paper presents an efficient technique to map phase shift keying (PSK) signalling to colour shift keying (CSK) constellation, to establish a full link in hybrid systems involving the radio frequency (RF) and the visible spectrum. It fits in systems combining (first link) wireless communication technologies such as the wireless fidelity (WiFi) or wired communication technologies such as power line communications (PLC) to visible light communications (VLC) technology (second link). On the first link, PSK technique is used to convey the information, while, on the second link, a technique based on colour variation is deployed. WiFi standards targeted are those that employ PSK as sub-carrier modulation techniques (IEEE 802.11a/11g/11n). The PSK complex constellation observed at the output of the first link is converted into colours using the hue-saturation-value/intensity (HSV/I) colour models. The constant lighting required in VLC corresponds with the coordinate I of the HSI and the colour constraint is met by assigning adequate current intensities to the red-green-blue LEDs (RGB-LEDs) used. The design meets the requirements of CSK constellation design outlined in IEEE 802.15.7. The performance of the system is analysed through bit error rate curves obtained by simulations, for binary PSK (BPSK) and quadrature PSK (QPSK), 8PSK and 16PSK constellations. The results show that as the constellation size increases, the performance of the system decreases.