Performance of the Reed-Solomon-coded underwater optical wireless communication system with orientation-based solar light noise.

Abstract

Various physical and chemical properties of seawater degrade the performance of the underwater optical wireless communication (UOWC) system. Implementing a forward error correction (FEC) coding scheme, advanced modulation, and signal processing techniques improves the UOWC system performance. So far, the implementation of FEC codes over the UOWC system has not been discussed with the system receiver (Rx) orientations. The undersea background noise is a challenge to the UOWC system, and the solar noise is robust in this category. The system Rx experiences unequal solar noise density when it faces different orientations. This paper evaluates the performance of the UOWC system, implementing the Reed-Solomon (RS) coding scheme when the Rx meets different orientations, and presents a computational model to find out energy-efficient RS code for a specific direction. The theoretical evaluation demonstrates that a fixed RS code is not always energy-efficient to the system when the Rx moves in various orientations.