Underwater wireless optical communication; recent advances and remaining challenges

Because of its ability of providing very high data transmission rates over distances up to several tens of meters, underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) has attracted considerable interest during the past few years. The underwater channel is a challenging environment, especially because of its high attenuation. The difficulty of precise localization underwater also leads to unavoidable link misalignments that can have an important impact on the link availability and otherwise on the quality of signal transmission. In this paper, after a review of the recent research works on UWOC and the available commercialized systems, we present the performance study of a typical UWOC system under some simplifying assumptions for system modeling. We also address the open issues and the challenges that we are faced with in practice.

[1]  M. Khalighi,et al.  Impact of different noise sources on the performance of PIN- and APD-based FSO receivers , 2011, Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Telecommunications.

[2]  Salah Bourennane,et al.  Misalignment considerations in point-to-point underwater wireless optical links , 2013, 2013 MTS/IEEE OCEANS - Bergen.

[3]  Daniela Rus,et al.  An End-to-End Signal Strength Model for Underwater Optical Communications , 2013, IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering.

[4]  John F. Muth,et al.  A spatial diversity system to measure optical fading in an underwater communications channel , 2009, OCEANS 2009.

[5]  V. Rigaud,et al.  Monte-Carlo-based channel characterization for underwater optical communication systems , 2013, IEEE/OSA Journal of Optical Communications and Networking.

[6]  Laura J. Johnson,et al.  Underwater optical wireless communications: depth dependent variations in attenuation. , 2013, Applied optics.

[7]  B. Cochenour,et al.  Phase Coherent Digital Communications for Wireless Optical Links in Turbid Underwater Environments , 2007, OCEANS 2007.

[8]  Daniela Rus,et al.  BiDirectional optical communication with AquaOptical II , 2010, 2010 IEEE International Conference on Communication Systems.

[9]  F. Hanson,et al.  High bandwidth underwater optical communication. , 2008, Applied optics.

[10]  C. Pontbriand,et al.  An integrated, underwater optical /acoustic communications system , 2010, OCEANS'10 IEEE SYDNEY.

[11]  Zabih Ghassemlooy,et al.  Digital pulse interval modulation for optical communications , 1998 .

[12]  Linda Mullen,et al.  Temporal Response of the Underwater Optical Channel for High-Bandwidth Wireless Laser Communications , 2013, IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering.

[13]  Mark Lasher,et al.  Effects of underwater turbulence on laser beam propagation and coupling into single-mode optical fiber. , 2010, Applied optics.

[14]  Peter I. Corke,et al.  Data collection, storage, and retrieval with an underwater sensor network , 2005, SenSys '05.

[15]  J A Simpson,et al.  5 Mbps optical wireless communication with error correction coding for underwater sensor nodes , 2010, OCEANS 2010 MTS/IEEE SEATTLE.

[16]  Yalçın Ata,et al.  Structure functions for optical wave propagation in underwater medium , 2014 .

[17]  Tomoaki Ohtsuki Multiple-subcarrier modulation in optical wireless communications , 2003, IEEE Commun. Mag..

[18]  Yuhan Dong,et al.  Effect of Random Sea Surface on Downlink Underwater Wireless Optical Communications , 2013, IEEE Communications Letters.

[19]  Shlomi Arnon,et al.  An underwater optical wireless communication network , 2009, Optical Engineering + Applications.

[20]  V. Rigaud,et al.  Investigation of suitable modulation techniques for underwater wireless optical communication , 2012, 2012 International Workshop on Optical Wireless Communications (IWOW).

[21]  G. Cossu,et al.  Experimental demonstration of high speed underwater visible light communications , 2013, 2013 2nd International Workshop on Optical Wireless Communications (IWOW).

[22]  Carrick Detweiler,et al.  AquaOptical: A lightweight device for high-rate long-range underwater point-to-point communication , 2009, OCEANS 2009.

[23]  John F. Muth,et al.  Smart Transmitters and Receivers for Underwater Free-Space Optical Communication , 2012, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications.