Non-line-of-sight multiple reflection underwater wireless optical communications channel model based on a capillary waves rough sea surface.

Abstract

In a non-line-of sight reflective underwater wireless optical communications (UWOC) link, the transmitted beam relies on reflections from the sea surface to propagate to the underwater receiver. Most previous research on reflective channels has sufficiently considered single reflections from a smooth or rough surface, while ignoring the effect of multiple reflections. In fact, a rough sea surface may cause the reflected photons to hit the sea surface again, which is referred as a multiple reflection process. To make up for deficiencies in the existing literature, we first construct a capillary waves rough sea surface model, and then present a multiple reflection channel model with the help of the Monte Carlo ray tracing approach. The path loss and channel impulse response (CIR) were further evaluated based on the model for different communications scenarios. Numerical results suggest that multiple reflections increase the path loss by more than about 5dB, and reduce the CIR amplitude to less than one-third compared to a single reflection. The work done in this paper aims to provide theoretical support for UWOC system design.