Experiments of Recreating the Frequency Domain Properties of Seawater Channel for Underwater Optical Communication

Optical communication is a potential technology to realize underwater wireless communication. The experiment of underwater optical communication in the laboratory is different with that in the real water environment because the physical scale is limited. Although since recent several decades, artificial scattering agents are used to recreate underwater optical communication channels under different water quality conditions, but the similarity between experimental water and natural water is not reliable, such as the similarity in frequency domain characteristics. In this paper, several kinds of agents are evaluated to change the optical coefficients of experimental water precisely. Then, seemed as criterion for the reliability of water recreation, the frequency domain characteristic of optical communication channel in experimental water is measured and compared. The results show that the type and particle size of the agents will significantly affect its optical properties, and the frequency domain component of the optical communication signal will be affected by the agents concentration.