Bandwidth enhancement of wireless optical communication link using a near-infrared laser over turbid underwater channel

Underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) has been widely studied as a promising alternative to establish reliable short-range marine communication links. Microscopic particulates suspended in various ocean, harbor and natural waters will alter the propagation characteristics of the optical signals underwater. In this paper, we demonstrate a gigabit near-infrared (NIR)-based UWOC link using an 808-nm laser diode, to examine the feasibility of the proposed system in mitigating the particle scattering effect over turbid waters. We show that the NIR wavelengths presents greater resilience to the aqueous suspension of these micro-sized particles with a smaller scattering effect due to its longer wavelength, as evident by the smaller variations in the optical beam transmittance. It is also observed that the error performance is improved at higher concentrations albeit the significant reduction in received signal power. We further demonstrate that the overall frequency response of the system exhibits a bandwidth enhancement up to a few tens of MHz with increasing concentrations.