The Impact of the Length of Fluorescent Fiber Concentrators on the Performance of VLC Receivers

Fluorophore doped plastic optical fibers can be used to create optical concentrators in receivers for visible light communications, that also act as wide field of view filters. Increasing the length of these fibers allows them to collect more of the signal from the transmitter, however, it can also reduce the bandwidth of the fiber. Results are presented from 3 different lengths of fiber which show that the best length of a fluorescent fiber depends upon the data rate. However, a simple calculation results in a length that is a good choice for a range of OOK data rates.