Open AccessLong-reach underwater wireless optical communication with relaxed link alignment enabled by optical combination and arrayed sensitive receivers
Author(s) -
Miaomiao Zhao,
Xin Li,
Xiao Chen,
Zhijian Tong,
Weichao Lyu,
Zejun Zhang,
Jing Xu
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.410026
Subject(s) - optics , offset (computer science) , transmission (telecommunications) , attenuation , optical wireless , underwater , optical communication , physics , detector , optical fiber , wireless , computer science , telecommunications , oceanography , programming language , geology
To extend the transmission distance and relax the strict alignment requirement of underwater wireless optical communication ((UWOC), we design and implement a UWOC system using a 3×1 fiber combiner and a high-sensitive multi-pixel photon counter (MPPC). The 50-m and 100-m transmission distances (corresponding to 24 attenuation lengths) are experimentally achieved with the data rates of 16.78 Mbps and 8.39 Mbps, respectively, in a 50-m standard swimming pool. Moreover, we also investigate and optimize the performance of misalignment tolerance of this system using two MPPCs as the detectors together with different diversity reception technologies. At the 50-m transmission distance, the maximum offset between the MPPC array and the light spot center can be extended to 9 m using the maximal ratio combining (MRC), while the maximum offset is 6 m when using single MPPC.