ISBN 978-1-6654-3986-2

Underwater Communication Through Li-Fi for

2021 International Conference on System, Computation, Automation and Networking (ICSCAN) | 978-1-6654-3986-2/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ICSCAN53069.2021.9526524

Data Transmission
Sivasakthi T Palani U Vasanthi D
Department of Electronics and Department of Electronics and Department of
Communication Engineering Communication Engineering Electronics and Communication
IFET College of Engineering IFET College of Engineering Engineering IFET College of
Villupuram, India sakthi15ifet@ Villupuram , India Engineering
gmail.com palani@ifet.ac.in Villupuram, India dvasanthime@
gmail.com
Subhashree S Roshini S
Department of Electronics and Department of Electronics and Saundariya K
Communication Engineering Communication Engineering Department of Electronics and
IFET College of Engineering IFET College of Engineering Communication Engineering
Villupuram, India subha2611.siva Villupuram, India IFET College of Engineering
@gmail.com sroshini36@gmail.com Villupuram, India saundarkum
276@gmail.com

Abstract—In recent days, Underwater Communication is

used to keep track of obstacles and ocean species. Wi-Fi cannot be
used in underwater communication because in water the Radio
Waves are get absorbed. Li-Fi can be used underwater because light
can penetrate deep water. In this paper, we present a real-time
video transmission using Li-Fi (Light Fidelity) transmitter. The
audio and video transmission achieve a maximum distance of 200m.
The Li-Fi transmitter and receiver are used to analyze the
performance and various conditions such as quality, intensity, and
distance. The key advantage of Li-Fi is low power consumption and
very high data rates. The software is implemented in Keil software.
Keywords: VLC (Visible Light Communication), Li-Fi,
Transmitter, Receiver.
I. INTRODUCTION
Visible Light Communication (VLC) is a wireless method
that uses LEDs to transfer information similar to Wi-Fi. VLC is a
free-space optical wireless communication technology that uses
visible light to transmit data across distances [1]. Li-Fi and Wi-Fi
use electromagnetic waves for data transmission [2]. Wi-Fi uses
radio waves. The radio waves do not work underwater because
of the conducting nature of the medium. It can penetrate
underwater to a few tens of meters. Li-Fi uses visible light in the
range of 100Mb/s. Generally, VLC provides a fast data rate in
the range of 500Mb/s [3].
Li-Fi was invented by Harald Haas, a German Professor
at the University of Edinburgh. It is a fast data transmitter
because of the light velocity. Li-Fi (Light Fidelity) works on
the principle of Visible Light Communication. Li-Fi consists of
LED light that forms a wireless communication network. When
an electrical current is passed to a LED light a stream of the
photon is ejected from the light. The Signal can be received by
a photo-detector.
Li-Fi transmission is the best alternate source of Wi-Fi.
Radio waves are harmful to aquatic species. Light sources are
better for underwater data transmission. In underwater
communication, the role of Li-Fi is used for navigation, alert
sea divers, prevent accidents, audio and text transmission,
image and video transmission [4]. For deep-sea analysis, Li-Fi
is the most suitable choice. The data transmission in Li-Fi
provides accurate results in the dark place. The live data can be
capture and transmitted to the receiver side.
In the Electromagnetic Spectrum, The frequency of the
visible light ranges from 450THz to 750THz, and the radio
frequency band of VLC is between 1Hz to 3THz [5]. Li-Fi
produces data rates that should be higher than 1 GB/s which is
faster than Wi-Fi. The properties of visible light
communication are the speed of light for best communication
and greater bandwidth. The system provides high-quality video
transmission [6].
The modulated data can be transfer through white LEDs
at the transmitter end. The photodetector is placed at the
receiver end it can demodulate the output. The data transfer at
the transmitter end can be accurately received at the receiver
end. All the collected information is stored in a folder to
retrieve anytime and anywhere.

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II. RELATED WORK
There are various approaches for underwater wireless
communication that have been studied for underwater research
works.
Most of the recent works use Electromagnetic waves at
higher frequencies and bandwidth for underwater
communication. It is a faster communication medium.
SONAR sends sound waves to navigate, detect objects,
and communicate under the water. The principle of sonar is the
echo. SONAR communication is done in two ways: Active and
Passive. The speed of sound in air medium is 331 m/s, while the
speed of sound in water medium is 1500 m/s.
III. WORKING OF LI-FI
VLC means communication through visible light. The
VLC technique involved in this Li-Fi is light fidelity. The Li-Fi
method uses LED for data transfer. The data is transformed into
light energy. Then, the LED flash in the form of data [7]. The
photodiode was acting as a receiver. It receives the data and
arranging it in a sequence manner.
Fig.1 Working of Li-Fi
IV. APPLICATION OF LI-FI
Hospital:
The patient information can be transmitted through Li-
Fi. Wi-Fi emits radio waves which are harmful signals. Li-Fi is
preferred in areas like Hospitals [8].
Security:
In a critical situation, instead of electrical instruments,
Li-Fi is a good choice to transfer data. This provides better
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security. The radiofrequency waves used by Wi-Fi can transmit
data over the walls but Li-Fi doesn’t transmit over the wall. So,
the data is more secured.
Underwater Application:
Radio waves are harmful to aquatic species. The
Wired communication may limit the length of the cable to
transmit a command. In that situation, Li-Fi could be
implemented to receive and send back signals for 200 meters.
It can prevent accidents by alerting the divers.
Vehicles:
The Vehicle could communicate by front and back
headlights for road safety using Li-Fi technology [9].
Industries:
Li-Fi can also be used in petrochemical industries
automation instead of using dangerous radio spectrum. Even in
power plants, The Li-Fi is used in that sensitive areas. Li-Fi is a
good source for short-range communication.
Network:
Visible Light Communication also deals with the 5G
network [10].
V. SYSTEM DESIGN
In this part, we see the summary of system design.
The major component of the system is desktop, transmitter, and
receiver. The desktop sends information to the transmitter that
converts an electrical signal into a light signal [11]. In
Transmitter, The light signal modulates the information and
then moves through the underwater channel and it is
demodulated by the receiver. The receiver transforms the
demodulated light signal to an electrical signal which is then
received at the receiving desktop. Further, we see the details
about the transmitter and receiver.
For video transmission, the data is taken from the
desktop and transfer the data to the Li-Fi transmitter. The
desktop is connected to the microcontroller using UART
(Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter). It can convert
the serial data into parallel data. On the receiver side, the data
was obtained and shifted into the desktop through UART. It
again converts the parallel data into serial data. The receiver
end contains a photodiode that collects the transmitted light
signal. The transmitted light signal is data.
The input is given as a video file which is in MP3
format at the transmitter desktop [12]. The power supply is
applied to both the transmitter and receiver. The video file is
received at the receiver desktop. In the future, other formats of
video files can also be transfered.
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A. Microcontroller
PIC16F877A is a PIC (Programmable Interface Controllers)
Microcontroller. It has a total of 40 pins. In that 33 pins are
input-output pins. The function of EEPROM is to store
information permanently. The controller is low-cost and easy
to handle. It can operate up to 20MHz. The average operating
voltage level is 4.2V to 5.5V. The microcontroller has an 8-bit
Analog to digital converter module. It has three timers they are
timer 0, timer 1, and timer 2. It can help to generate two PWM
signals. The controller supports serial communication for
which it has 2 pins transmitter TX and receiver RX. It has a
total of 5 ports they are PORTA, PORTB, PORTC, PORTD,
and PORTE. It also supports SPI Protocol.
B. Li-Fi Transmitter
While designing a transmitter, the main part we want
to select is a light source. The light source is maybe LED or
LASER diode [13]. The light source should be cost-effective,
simplicity and good efficient, as well as the source, needs to be
work in both the medium which is free space and underwater.
Both LED and LASER has pros and cons. Laser diodes are not
requisite for underwater communication. It may emit overheat
and it is overpriced to implement in underwater
communication. The system needs to be compact and power-
efficient. For underwater purposes, LED is a perfect choice
[14]. It is small in size, power-efficient, low cost, longer
lifetime, and less complex [15].
Fig.2 Li-Fi Transmitter
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ISBN 978-1-6654-3986-2
C. Li-Fi Receiver
The receiver contains a photodetector that converts
light energy into electrical energy. Here, the photodiodes are
used as a photodetector. The photodiode is smaller in size,
operates at high speed, and ambient noise performance. The
photodiodes are current-controlled devices. The device
operates in reverse bias condition, when the reverse current
increases then the light intensity is also increased. Most of the
devices work when the current changed into voltage.
Therefore, the current signal from the photodiode is converted
into a voltage signal which follows ohm’s law. It takes time to
receive the data.
Fig.3 Li-Fi Receiver
VI. RESULTS
The video transmission is performed at several
distances and output is viewed on the desktop. The transmitter
end is connected to the desktop using the serial port. The video
is selected on the transmitter desktop. In that, we can search
and select the data to transfer. After selecting the data, press
the send button to start the process. Continuous data
transmission is required for video transmission. So, the light is
required to be in ON state continuously. Once all the data bytes
are shifted then the transmission is done.
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used to transmit data. Light needs to be in an ON state to

transmit data.

B. Speed:
The speed of data transmission is very high.

C. Availability:
The light can be used everywhere. High-speed data
transmission is also available everywhere.

D. Cost:
Li-Fi is cheaper because it does not require any
license like Wi-Fi.

E. Security:
Li-Fi is more secure to use. Li-Fi transmission is done
within a room.

VIII. CONCLUSION
Fig.4 Transmitter end
This paper describes that video transmission can be
done using Li-Fi. We can transmit high-quality video files for
At the receiver end, the video will be played after all the
underwater communication and also for various purposes. We
data bytes are received. Similar to the transmitter, the receiver
will proceed with the concept through a greener, cleaner and
circuit is connected to the desktop using a serial port. The same
safer future. In Li-Fi, the range of communication is higher,
process is repeated for each data transmission.
power consumption is less, the packaging is smaller, it does not
disperse underwater, and data transmission speed is high. Li-Fi
technology is a better technology that can be used for
underwater communication when compared to other methods.

REFERENCES

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VII. ADVANTAGES [5] Olivier Bouchet, Pascal Porcon, Mike Wolf, Liane Grobe,
A. Efficiency: Joachim Walewski, Stefan Nerreter, Klaus-Dieter Langer, Luz
Li-Fi works on VLC technology. In Most places LED Fern´andez, Jelena Vucic, “Visible-light communication system
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Authorized India IEEE
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 ISBN 978-1-6654-3986-2

[6] Junyi Jiang, Fan Jin, Lajos Hanzo, “Video Streaming in the
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