On the Relative Effect of Underwater Optical Turbulence in Different Channel Conditions

This paper presents a simulation framework for modelling optical underwater turbulence in conjunction with absorption and scattering. Using this technique, the channel is evaluated in two ways: the turbulent statistics in different channel conditions; and the stationary channel characteristics. The turbulent statistics observed from the simulation show that the relative impact of turbulence on a received signal is lower in a highly scattering channel, showing an in-built resilience of these channels. Received intensity distributions are presented, showing that the commonly used Log-Normal fading model provides a good description of the fluctuations in received optical power due to the effect of turbulence. When considering stationary channel characteristics, the effect of turbulence induced scattering is shown to cause and increase both spatial and temporal spreading at the receiver plane. The impact of turbulence - as measured using this new modelling framework - on the channel capacity is equally investigated to provide context to the implications of the channel modelling findings on underwater optical wireless communications link performance.