Empirical study of an underwater optical camera communication system under turbulent conditions

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study of the turbulence impact caused by temperature inhomogeneity and air bubbles on a global shutter-based underwater optical camera communication (UOCC). The effects of these two phenomena on UOCC links are illustrated in terms of the intensity variations and an associated reduction in the average received intensity of the illuminated pixels corresponding to the optical source projection and the dispersion of the projection on the captured images. Additionally, it is shown that the area of illuminated pixels in the temperature-induced turbulence scenario is higher than in the bubbly water case. To analyze the effects of those two phenomena on the optical link performance, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the system is evaluated by considering different points as the regions of interest (ROI) from the light source projection of the captured images. The results indicate that the system performance is improved by averaging over the value of several pixels produced by the point spread function, compared to simply using the central and the maximum pixel value as the ROIs.

Exploring Universal Filtered Multi Carrier Waveform for Last Meter Connectivity in 6G: A Street-Lighting-Driven Approach with Enhanced Simulator for IoT Application Dimensioning

“…Healthcare applications leverage VLC for remote health monitoring, aligning with smart health strategies in smart cities [15]. Finally, underwater communication, a traditionally challenging domain, sees VLC's potential to achieve communications in harsh turbulent conditions [16]. This paper critically analyzes and provides the essential tools for integrating VLC communication in short-distance scenarios within urban and industrial settings, contributing to the dynamic landscape of 6G technologies.…”