Underwater wireless optical communication using a lens-free solar panel receiver

Kong, Meiwei; Sun, Bin; Sarwar, Rohail; Shen, Jian; Chen, Yifei; Qu, Fengzhong; Han, Jun; Chen, Jiawang; Qin, Huawei; Xu, Jing

doi:10.1016/j.optcom.2018.05.019

Cited by 37 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…However, there are a number of environmental factors, which limit the performance of UOWC links. Most of the experimental investigations reported on UOWC have focused on the effect of absorption and multiple scattering on the propagating optical beam [1][2][3][4][5]. In addition, in recent years we have seen experimental investigation of the underwater turbulence and its effects on laser-based UOWC and imaging systems [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental study of the turbulence effect on underwater optical wireless communications

et al. 2018

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Underwater optical wireless communications (UOWC) performance is affected by turbulence. However, not much research has been carried out to estimate the probability density function (PDF) of the received optical power. In this paper, we investigate the turbulence effect on UOWC using a new experimental setup with a variable link span in a water pool. Different turbulence levels are created by changing the temperature and the rate of an injected water flow in the pool in order to obtain the PDF. Results show that lognormal distribution fits well with the measured PDF up to the scintillation index value of 0.07. In UOWC systems the link span is one of the main factor influencing fluctuations of the received optical power, which has not been investigated. In this work, we obtain the scintillation index and turbulence induced power loss for a range of turbulence strengths and for a transmission link span of up to 12 m. Finally, we show that there is a good agreement between the experimental and simulated results.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental study of the turbulence effect on underwater optical wireless communications

et al. 2018

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“…Comparatively, the photodetection scheme based on scintillating fibers offers large modulation bandwidth as compared to other prior works, without sacrificing the detection area. Moreover, as compared to conventional photoreceivers based on Si-based photodiodes [46], [59], [67], [102] and solar panels [103], the use of scintillating fibers render large area detection while preserving the modulation bandwidth of the accompanying Si-based photodiode. This could also alleviate the costly and timely development path for a UV-based photoreceiver with a large detection area and high response speed [104]- [107].…”

Section: Omnidirectional Fiber Photodetector With Large Active Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Ref. [103], the authors first stressed the importance of PV cells for UWOC to resolve underwater energy issues in underwater environments. Considering the complexity in underwater channels, the authors also highlighted the superiorities of PV cells with large detection areas, which can significantly alleviate the alignment issues caused by mobile transmitters and receivers.…”

Section: Photovoltaic Cells For Simultaneous Signal Detection and mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review on Practical Considerations and Solutions in Underwater Wireless Optical Communication

Sun

Ooi

Kang

et al. 2020

J. Lightwave Technol.

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165

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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.

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“…Moreover, it is expected to support large-scale deployments of low-power consuming devices by employing existing energy-efficient lighting infrastructures (i.e., light emitting diodes (LEDs)) as light sources for simultaneous illumination and high-speed wireless data transmission [3]. Driven by the rapid escalation of energy-saving requirements, solar cells with the dual functions of energy harvesting and data acquisition are appealing as alternatives to commonly used detectors (i.e., positive-intrinsic-negative diodes and avalanche photodiodes) [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. They are widely recognized as the key components of future self-powered IoT devices such as wearables, smart homes, smart transportation systems, and long-term environmental monitoring equipment with millions of sensors [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Employing a white-light laser, we achieve a 20-m long-distance illumination and VLC with a data rate of 1 Mb/s in the air. Compared with organic, polycrystalline Si, or monocrystalline Si solar cells employed in the prior work [3][4][5][6][7][8][9], a-Si thin-film solar cells with the superiority in weak-light detection show excellent performance in long-distance VLC. White-light lasers are also proved to be good candidates of white-light LEDs to implement simultaneous long-distance lighting and highspeed VLC in the future thanks to their better collimation, higher bandwidth and higher power intensity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward self-powered and reliable visible light communication using amorphous silicon thin-film solar cells

et al. 2019

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Enhancing robustness and energy efficiency is critical in visible light communication (VLC) to support large-scale data traffic and connectivity of smart devices in the era of fifthgeneration networks. To this end, we demonstrate that amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin-film solar cells with a high light absorption coefficient are particularly useful for simultaneous robust signal detection and efficient energy harvesting under the condition of weak light in this study. Moreover, a first-generation prototype called AquaE-lite is developed that consists of an a-Si thin-film solar panel and receiver circuits, which can detect weak light as low as 1 µW/cm 2. Using AquaE-lite and a white-light laser, orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing signals with data rates of 1 Mb/s and 908.2 kb/s are achieved over a 20-m long-distance air channel and 2.4-m turbid outdoor pool water, respectively, under the condition of strong background light. The reliable VLC system based on energy-efficient a-Si thin-film solar cells opens a new pathway for future satellite-air-ground-ocean optical wireless communication to realize connectivity among millions of Internet of Things devices.

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Underwater wireless optical communication using a lens-free solar panel receiver

Cited by 37 publications

References 10 publications

Experimental study of the turbulence effect on underwater optical wireless communications

Experimental study of the turbulence effect on underwater optical wireless communications

A Review on Practical Considerations and Solutions in Underwater Wireless Optical Communication

Toward self-powered and reliable visible light communication using amorphous silicon thin-film solar cells

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