LDPC-coded MIMO optical communication over the atmospheric turbulence channel using Q-ary pulse-position modulation

We describe a coded power-efficient transmission scheme based on repetition MIMO principle suitable for communication over the atmospheric turbulence channel, and determine its channel capacity. The proposed scheme employs the Q-ary pulse-position modulation. We further study how to approach the channel capacity limits using low-density parity-check ( LDPC) codes. Component LDPC codes are designed using the concept of pairwise-balanced designs. Contrary to the several recent publications, bit-error rates and channel capacities are reported assuming that p.i.n. photodetectors are used instead of ideal photon-counting receivers. The atmospheric turbulence channel is modeled using the Gamma-Gamma distribution function due to Al-Habash et al. Excellent bit-error rate performance improvement, over uncoded case, is found. (C) 2007 Optical Society of America.