Error rates of arbitrary order optical wireless pulse-position modulation: An efficient approach

We present analytical results on the bit-error probability (BEP) of arbitrary order pulse-position modulation (PPM) of optically pre-amplified receivers. We use the Laguerre photon counting distribution so as to model the statistic of the optical noise, in order to accurately model the effects of signal and spontaneous noise beating at the optical detector. The great advantage of our proposed results is that they are exact and only require a finite summation over the optical noise modes and the modulation order. In addition, this approach enables the efficient calculation of the BEP in optical wireless communication links, under the presence of atmospheric scintillations and pointing errors.