Adaptive beam shaping for enhanced underwater wireless optical communication

In this paper, we proposed and experimentally verified a diffraction-based optical beam shaping technique for underwater optical communication (UWOC) applications. The proposed method aimed to address the key issue in UWOC links, i.e., the high propagation loss experienced by the launched optical beam. It enabled a significantly higher portion of the launched signal to be collected by the receiver. The optimal transmission distance could also be fine-tuned by the software configuration. In a proof-of-concept demonstration based on the off-the-shelf components, 100 Mbps transmission was achieved over 15-meter distance and a significant enhancement in the transmission quality was observed. There is a huge scope for further improvement in the transmission distance and data rate when the proposed technique was used with purpose-built optical components and advanced coding schemes. (C) 2021 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement

Automated summary

This paper presents a diffraction-based optical beam shaping technique for underwater optical communication (UWOC) applications, which successfully addresses the high propagation loss issue and achieves higher signal collection and transmission quality. There is potential for further improvement in transmission distance and data rate when using purpose-built optical components and advanced coding schemes with the proposed technique.