On the capacity of underwater wireless optical channels

Abstract

We consider the channel capacity of underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) links with inter-symbol interference (ISI). We present a UWOC system model with the channel characterized by double Gamma functions and the receiver modeled by the ideal photon-counting detector and additive Poisson noise. We then apply this system model to numerically evaluate the channel capacity in terms of mutual information in the presence of ISI. Numerical results reveal the relationship among water types, symbol rate, transmit power and channel capacity. They further suggest that the UWOC channel capacity decays as the symbol rate increases and that this degradation can be decreased by increasing the transmit power for a given water type.