In order to mitigate atmospheric turbulence, the free space optical (FSO) system model with spatial diversity is analyzed based on intensity detection pulse position modulation (PPM) in the weak turbulence atmosphere. The slot error rate (SER) calculating formula of the system without diversity is derived under pulse position modulation firstly. Then as a benchmark, independent of identical distribution, the average slot error rates of the three linear combining technologies, which are the maximal ratio combining (MRC), equal gain combining (EGC) and selection combining (SelC), are compared. Simulation results show that the performance of system is the best improved by MRC, followed by EGC, and is poor by SelC, but SelC is simpler and more convenient. Spatial diversity is efficient to improve the performance and has strong ability on resistance to atmospheric channel decline. The above scheme is more suitable for optical wireless communication systems.

In order to use white light emitting diode (LED) as a lighting source and communication part, a new modulation scheme called reverse dual header pulse interval modulation (RDH-PIM) is proposed for indoor visible light communications based on the analyses of the structures of on-off keying (OOK), pulse position modulation (PPM), digital pulse interval modulation (DPIM) and dual header pulse interval modulation (DH-PIM). After analyzing and comparing the symbol structure, bandwidth requirement and average transmission power of different modulation methods, the slot error rate is derived. Simulation results show that OOK has the minimum bandwidth, while RDH-PIM has the highest average transmission power and its bandwidth efficiency is obviously better than those of PPM and DPIM. Hence, RDH-PIM is superior in optical wireless communication systems.