A Review on Practical Considerations and Solutions in Underwater Wireless Optical Communication
Type
ArticleAuthors
Sun, Xiaobin
Kang, Chun Hong
Kong, Meiwei
Alkhazragi, Omar
Guo, Yujian
Ouhssain, Mustapha
Weng, Yang
Jones, Burton

Ng, Tien Khee

Ooi, Boon S.

KAUST Department
Electrical Engineering ProgramComputer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering (CEMSE) Division
CEMSE, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, 127355 Thuwal, Jeddah Saudi Arabia 23955-6900
Red Sea Research Center (RSRC)
CEMSE, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, 127355 Thuwal, Makkah Saudi Arabia
Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) Division
Marine Science Program
KAUST Grant Number
BAS/1/1614-01-01GEN/1/6607-01-01
KCR/1/2081-01-01
Date
2019-12-16Online Publication Date
2019-12-16Print Publication Date
2020-01-15Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/660627
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) has attracted increasing interest in various underwater activities because of its order-of-magnitude higher bandwidth compared to acoustic and radio-frequency technologies. Testbeds and pre-aligned UWOC links were constructed for physical layer evaluation, which verified that UWOC systems can operate at tens of gigabits per second or close to a hundred meters of distance. This holds promise for realizing a globally connected Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT). However, due to the fundamental complexity of the ocean water environment, there are considerable practical challenges in establishing reliable UWOC links. Thus, in addition to providing an exhaustive overview of recent advances in UWOC, this paper addresses various underwater challenges and offers insights into the solutions for these challenges. In particular, oceanic turbulence, which induces scintillation and misalignment in underwater links, is one key factor in degrading UWOC performance. Novel solutions are proposed to ease the requirements on pointing, acquisition, and tracking (PAT) for establishing robustness in UWOC links. The solutions include light-scattering-based non-line-of-sight (NLOS) communication modality as well as PAT-relieving scintillating-fiber-based photoreceiver and large-photovoltaic cells as the optical signal detectors. Naturally, the dual-function photovoltaic-photodetector device readily offers a means of energy harvesting for powering up future IoUT sensors.Citation
Sun, X., Kang, C. H., Kong, M., Alkhazragi, O., Guo, Y., Ouhssain, M., … Ooi, B. S. (2020). A Review on Practical Considerations and Solutions in Underwater Wireless Optical Communication. Journal of Lightwave Technology, 38(2), 421–431. doi:10.1109/jlt.2019.2960131Sponsors
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), BAS/1/1614-01-01, KCR/1/2081-01-01, GEN/1/6607-01-01, and FCC/1/1973-27-01. This work was partially supported by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) Grant No. KACST TIC R2-FP-008. X. Sun, C. H. Kang, M. Kong, O. Alkhazragi, Y. Guo, and Y. Weng are with the Photonics Laboratory, King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia. M. Ouhssain and B. H. Jones are with the Integrated Ocean Processes Laboratory, King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia. T. K. Ng and B. S. Ooi* are with the Photonics Laboratory, King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.Publisher
IEEEJournal
Journal of Lightwave TechnologyAdditional Links
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8933430/https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=8933430
ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1109/JLT.2019.2960131
Scopus Count
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