High-Speed Underwater Optical Wireless Communication with Advanced Signal Processing Methods Survey

Abstract

Underwater wireless communication (UWC) technology has attracted widespread attention in the past few years. Compared with conventional acoustic underwater wireless communication technology, underwater optical wireless communication (UOWC) technology has promising potential to provide high data rate wireless connections due to the large license-free bandwidth. Building a high-performance and reliable UOWC system has become the target of researchers and various advanced and innovative technologies have been proposed and investigated. Among them, better hardware such as transmitters and receivers, as well as more advanced modulation and signal processing techniques, are key factors in improving UOWC system performance. In this paper, we review the recent development in UOWC systems. In particular, we provide a brief introduction to different types of UOWC systems based on channel configuration, and we focus on various recent studies on advanced signal processing methods in UOWC systems, including both traditional non-machine learning (NML) equalizers and machine learning (ML) schemes based on neural networks. In addition, we also discuss the key challenges in UOWC systems for future applications.

Advancing Sustainable Marine Exploration: Highly Efficient Photonic Radar for Underwater Navigation Systems under the Impact of Different Salinity Levels

“…In contrast, underwater optical wireless communication (UOWC) presents itself as a natural candidate, offering higher data rates and shorter latency. UOWC is cost-effective and power-effective, utilizing low-cost, low-power transceivers like LEDs and photodiodes [24]. Despite these advantages, the limited transmittance of optical waves and challenges posed by shorter wavelengths demand focused research on improving UOWC system performance [25,26].…”

Real-time UWOC miniaturized system based on FPGA and LED arrays and its application in MIMO

“…This poses a challenge in terms of ensuring the reliable and efficient communication in underwater environments. The underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC), with its advantages of high speed, low latency, and high confidentiality, can be employed to compose high-speed and real-time local area networks for short to medium ranges, or complement the underwater acoustic communication to build a hybrid network [1][2][3][4][5] . Compared with the UWOC system based on the laser diode (LD), the UWOC system depending on the light-emitting diode (LED) can greatly reduce the requirements of the transceiver alignment for the non-fixed position and orientation in the dynamic seawater environment.…”

Optical Focusing-Based Adaptive Modulation for Air-to-Underwater Optoacoustic Communication

“…Optical signals are known for their ability to propagate over long distances in the air, maintaining high data rates even under varying atmospheric turbulence conditions [6]- [9]. However, when propagating underwater environments, these optical signals encounter significant attenuation, despite their potential for achieving high data rates [10]- [12]. Acoustic signals suffer little attenuation in water and hence are the prime choice for underwater communication.…”