Journal of Radio Electronics. eISSN 1684-1719. 2025. №8

Contents

Full text in Russian (pdf)

Russian page

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30898/1684-1719.2025.8.7

OPTICAL MODULE OF A BIMODAL system
for UNDERWATER WIRELESS COMMUNICATION

I.B. Shirokov, V.V. Golovin, E.A. Redkina, I.V. Serdyuk, P.P. Ovcharov

Sevastopol State University,
299053, Russia, Sevastopol, Universitetskaya str., 33

The paper was received May 13, 2025.

Abstract. This article presents the results of the development of the receiving and transmitting module of the underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) system. This module can be used as part of a wireless optical bridge for various telecommunication applications. A comparative analysis of publications devoted to the development of wireless underwater optical communication systems has been carried out. The developed optical receiving and transmitting module (ORTM) is an integral part of a bimodal modem for organizing underwater communications. The ORTM communicates with the modem via the RS-232 protocol. The ORTM consists of three boards — a digital signal processing board, a receiver board and a transmitter board. Software has been developed for FPGAs that provides the formation of a pulse train with pulse position modulation (PPM) from a digital sequence coming from the modem, as well as the reverse conversion of the pulse train coming to the FPGA from the receiver unit. According to the RS-232 protocol, a data transfer rate of 115200 bits per second is implemented with a distance between optical modules of up to 5 m. A sealed design of the ORTM prototype has been developed. The dimensions of the cylindrical ORTM prototype were 70×77×77 mm. The supply voltage line, downlink and uplink channels are organized between the ORTM and the modem via a cable through a deep-sea connectors. The ORTM tests were carried out as part of a bimodal modem, one channel of which involves transmitting data via an acoustic channel, the second channel via an optical channel, that is, using the developed ORTM. In the future, it is planned to develop the ORTM software in the direction of using noise-resistant coding and deeper integration of digital signal processing in the ORTM receiving path.

Key words: underwater wireless optical communication, bimodal modem, light emitting diode, photodiode.

Corresponding author: Golovin Vladislav Victorovich, v_golovin@mail.ru

References

1. Oubei H. M. et al. 4.8 Gbit/s 16-QAM-OFDM transmission based on compact 450-nm laser for underwater wireless optical communication //Optics express. – 2015. – vol. 23. – №. 18. – P. 23302-23309.

2. Baghdady J. et al. Multi-gigabit/s underwater optical communication link using orbital angular momentum multiplexing //Optics express. – 2016. – vol. 24. – № 9. – P. 9794-9805.

3. Shen C. et al. 20-meter underwater wireless optical communication link with 1.5 Gbps data rate //Optics express. – 2016. – vol. 24. – № 22. – PС. 25502-25509.

4. Huang Y. F. et al. Filtered multicarrier OFDM encoding on blue laser diode for 14.8-Gbps seawater transmission //Journal of Lightwave Technology. – 2017. – vol. 36. – № 9. – P. 1739-1745.

5. Liu X. et al. 34.5 m underwater optical wireless communication with 2.70 Gbps data rate based on a green laser diode with NRZ-OOK modulation //Optics express. – 2017. – vol. 25. – № 22. – P. 27937-27947.

6. Chen Y. et al. 26 m/5.5 Gbps air-water optical wireless communication based on an OFDM-modulated 520-nm laser diode //Optics express. – 2017. – vol. 25. – № 13. – P. 14760-14765.

7. Liu X. et al. 34.5 m underwater optical wireless communication with 2.70 Gbps data rate based on a green laser diode with NRZ-OOK modulation //Optics express. – 2017. – vol. 25. – № 22. – P. 27937-27947.

8. Wang J. et al. Underwater wireless optical communication system using a 16-QAM modulated 450-nm laser diode based on an FPGA //Applied Optics. – 2019. – vol. 58. – № 16. – P. 4553-4559.

9. Li Y. et al. Design and implementation of underwater wireless optical communication system with high-speed and full-duplex using blue/green light //2018 10th International Conference on Communication Software and Networks (ICCSN). – IEEE, 2018. – P. 99-103.

10. Han X. et al. Demonstration of 12.5 Mslot/s 32-PPM Underwater Wireless Optical Communication System with 0.34 Photons/Bit Receiver Sensitivity //Photonics. – MDPI, 2023. – vol. 10. – № 4. – P. 451.

11. Hu S. et al. 35.88 attenuation lengths and 3.32 bits/photon underwater optical wireless communication based on photon-counting receiver with 256-PPM //Optics express. – 2018. – vol. 26. – № 17. – P. 21685-21699.

12. Wang F. et al. High speed underwater visible light communication system based on LED employing maximum ratio combination with multi-PIN reception //Optics Communications. – 2018. – vol. 425. – P. 106-112.

13. Han B. et al. Experimental demonstration of quasi-omni-directional transmitter for underwater wireless optical communication based on blue LED array and freeform lens //Optics communications. – 2019. – vol. 434. – P. 184-190.

14. Zhou Y. et al. Common-anode LED on a Si substrate for beyond 15 Gbit/s underwater visible light communication //Photonics Research. – 2019. – vol. 7. – № 9. – P. 1019-1029.

15. Wang F. et al. 3.075 Gb/s underwater visible light communication utilizing hardware pre-equalizer with multiple feature points //Optical Engineering. – 2019. – vol. 58. – № 5. – P. 056117-056117.

16. Li J. et al. Large-coverage underwater visible light communication system based on blue LED employing equal gain combining with integrated PIN array reception //Applied Optics. – 2019. – vol. 58. – № 2. – P. 383-388.

17. Hu F. et al. 20.09-Gbit/s underwater WDM-VLC transmission based on a single Si/GaAs-substrate multichromatic LED array chip //2020 Optical fiber communications conference and exhibition (OFC). – IEEE, 2020. – P. 1-3.

18. Wang J. et al. Underwater wireless optical communication system using a 16-QAM modulated 450-nm laser diode based on an FPGA //Applied Optics. – 2019. – vol. 58. – № 16. – P. 4553-4559.

19. Sait M. et al. The impact of vertical salinity gradient on non-line-of-sight underwater optical wireless communication //IEEE Photonics Journal. – 2021. – vol. 13. – № 6. – P. 1-9.

20. Di Y., Shao Y., Chen L. K. Real-time wave mitigation for water-air OWC systems via beam tracking //IEEE Photonics Technology Letters. – 2021. – vol. 34. – № 1. – P. 47-50.

21. Shao Y. et al. Real-time 2.2-Gb/s water-air OFDM-OWC system with low-complexity transmitter-side DSP //Journal of Lightwave Technology. – 2020. – vol. 38. – № 20. – P. 5668-5675.

22. Wang P., Li C., Xu Z. A cost-efficient real-time 25 Mb/s system for LED-UOWC: design, channel coding, FPGA implementation, and characterization //Journal of Lightwave Technology. – 2018. – vol. 36. – № 13. – P. 2627-2637.

23. Doniec M. et al. AquaOptical: A lightweight device for high-rate long-range underwater point-to-point communication //Marine Technology Society Journal. – 2010. – vol. 44. – № 4. – P. 55-65.

24. Doniec M., Rus D. BiDirectional optical communication with AquaOptical II //2010 IEEE International Conference on Communication Systems. – IEEE, 2010. – P. 390-394.

25. Wei Z., Mu X., Fu H. Wearable full-duplex digital transceiver for underwater optical wireless communications //2018 Conference on lasers and electro-optics Pacific Rim (CLEO-PR). – IEEE, 2018. – P. 1-2.

26. Li J. et al. A real-time, full-duplex system for underwater wireless optical communication: hardware structure and optical link model //IEEE Access. – 2020. – vol. 8. – P. 109372-109387.

27. Li Y. et al. Design and implementation of underwater wireless optical communication system with high-speed and full-duplex using blue/green light //2018 10th International Conference on Communication Software and Networks (ICCSN). – IEEE, 2018. – P. 99-103.

28. Hardy N. D. et al. Demonstration of vehicle-to-vehicle optical pointing, acquisition, and tracking for undersea laser communications //Free-Space Laser Communications XXXI. – SPIE, 2019. – vol. 10910. – P. 205-214.

29. BlueComm® 200 UV – Optical Communications System. – Text : electronic // Sonardyne: https://www.sonardyne.com. – URL: https://www.innova.no/wp-content/uploads//2019/02/Sonardyne_8361_BlueComm_200_UV-1.pdf (access date: 25.01.2025).

30. Li J. et al. A real-time, full-duplex system for underwater wireless optical communication: hardware structure and optical link model //IEEE Access. – 2020. – vol. 8. – P. 109372-109387.

31. Kong M. et al. AquaE-lite hybrid-solar-cell receiver-modality for energy-autonomous terrestrial and underwater Internet-of-Things //IEEE Photonics Journal. – 2020. – vol. 12. – № 4. – P. 1-13.

32. Kong M. et al. Toward automatic subsea operations using real-time underwater optical wireless sensor networks //IEEE Photonics Journal. – 2021. – vol. 14. – № 1. – P. 1-8.

33. Kong M. et al. Real-time optical-wireless video surveillance system for high visual-fidelity underwater monitoring //IEEE Photonics Journal. – 2022. – vol. 14. – № 2. – P. 1-9.

34. Shirokov I.B., Golovin V.V., Redkina E.A., Serdyuk I.V., Ovcharov P.P. Practical aspects of design of the wireless underwater optical communication system for telecommunication applications // Radioelektronika, Nanosistemy, Informacionnye Tehnologii. – 2024. – vol. 16. – № 1. – P. 31-42.

35. Shirokov I.B., Golovin V.V., Redkina E.A., Serdyuk I.V., Ovcharov P.P Structure and element base of the transceiver module for organizing an underwater wireless optical data transmission system. // Journal of Radio Electronics. – 2024. – №. 7. https://doi.org/10.30898/1684-1719.2024.1.7 (In Russian).

For citation:

Shirokov I.B., Golovin V.V., Redkina E.A., Serdyuk I.V., Ovcharov P.P. Optical module of a bimodal system for underwater wireless communication. // Journal of Radio Electronics. – 2025. – №. 8. https://doi.org/10.30898/1684-1719.2025.8.7 (In Russian)