Characterization of Blue-Green Light Non-Line-of-Sight Transmission in Seawater

Abstract

The blue-green light in the 450 nm to 550 nm band is usually used in underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC). The blue-green light transmission in seawater is scattered by the seawater effect and can achieve communication in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) transmission mode. Compared to line-of-sight (LOS) transmission, NLOS transmission does not require alignment and can be adapted to various underwater environments. The scattering coefficients of seawater at different depths are different, which makes the scattering of light in different depths of seawater different. In this paper, the received optical power and bit error rate (BER) of the photodetector (PD) were calculated when the scattering coefficients of blue-green light in seawater vary from large to small with increasing depth for NLOS transmission. The results show that blue-green light in different depths of seawater in the same way NLOS communication at the same distance, the received optical power and BER at the receiver are different, and the received optical power of green light is greater than that of blue light. Increasing the forward scattering coverage of the laser will suppress the received optical power of the PD, so when performing NLOS communication, appropriate trade-offs should be made between the forward scattering coverage of the laser and the received optical power.