Vol. 24, No.

22 | 31 Oct 2016 | OPTICS EXPRESS 25502

20-meter underwater wireless optical

communication link with 1.5 Gbps data rate
CHAO SHEN,1 YUJIAN GUO,1 HASSAN M. OUBEI,1 TIEN KHEE NG,1
GUANGYU LIU,1 KI-HONG PARK,2 KANG-TING HO,1 MOHAMED-SLIM
ALOUINI,2 AND BOON S. OOI1,*
1
Photonics Laboratory, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 21534,
Saudi Arabia
2
Communication Theory Laboratory, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST),
Thuwal 21534, Saudi Arabia
*
boon.ooi@kaust.edu.sa

Abstract: The video streaming, data transmission, and remote control in underwater call for
high speed (Gbps) communication link with a long channel length (~10 meters). We present a
compact and low power consumption underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC)
system utilizing a 450-nm laser diode (LD) and a Si avalanche photodetector. With the LD
operating at a driving current of 80 mA with an optical power of 51.3 mW, we demonstrated
a high-speed UWOC link offering a data rate up to 2 Gbps over a 12-meter-long, and 1.5
Gbps over a record 20-meter-long underwater channel. The measured bit-error rate (BER) are
2.8 × 10−5, and 3.0 × 10−3, respectively, which pass well the forward error correction (FEC)
criterion.
© 2016 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: (010.4455) Oceanic propagation; (060.2605) Free-space optical communication; (060.4510) Optical
communications; (140.2020) Diode lasers; (140.7300) Visible lasers.

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#275526 http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.24.025502
Journal © 2016 Received 8 Sep 2016; revised 16 Oct 2016; accepted 16 Oct 2016; published 24 Oct 2016
 Vol. 24, No. 22 | 31 Oct 2016 | OPTICS EXPRESS 25503

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1. Introduction
There is an increasing demand for high transmission speed, large bandwidth underwater data
communication links to meet the rapid growing human activities underwater [1,2]. For
example, the oceanography studies, ocean seismic monitoring, sea floor survey, pollution
control, and offshore oil exploration will require the utilization of various underwater
networks, including distributed sensor nodes, unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) and
autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), as shown in Fig. 1. In order to enable real-time
video streaming, data upload and remote control for those applications, an underwater
wireless communication technology with high data rate and transmission speed becomes
essential [3, 4].

Fig. 1. Illustration of human activities underwater demanding long-distance, high transmission

speed, and large data rate wireless communications.

Conventionally, the acoustic communications has been widely used for underwater
applications owing to a relatively low attenuation, but the bandwidth of the underwater
acoustic channel is limited to tens of kHz, making it less favorable in data-intensive
applications [1, 5]. Besides, the slow propagation of sound waves also leads to a substantial
 Vol. 24, No. 22 | 31 Oct 2016 | OPTICS EXPRESS 25504

delay in the communication link. The radio frequency (RF) communications is another
technology benefiting from its high transmission speed of electromagnetic wave and a
relatively large bandwidth of few MHz underwater. However, the high attenuation of RF
waves in seawater significantly limits the effective transmission distance to a few meters [6].
Recently, the underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) technology has attracted
considerable attention as an alternative solution for short-range marine communication links
owing to the large modulation bandwidth, low latency, energy efficiency and small footprint
properties [1, 4, 7–15]. Table 1 summarizes the advances of UWOC systems with system
performance, including the light source, modulation technique, channel length, and the
achieved data rate.
Table 1. Comparison of UWOC Systems Configurations and Performance

Light Sourcea Modulation Schemeb Channel Length Data Rate Reference

450 nm LED 16-QAM-OFDM 2m 161.3 Mbps [7]

470 nm LED DPIM 9m 0.6 Mbps [5]
405 nm LD OFDM 4.8 m 1.45 Gbps [8]
445 nm LD OAM-OOK 2.96 m 3 Gbps [9]
450 nm LD 16-QAM-OFDM 5.4 m 4.8 Gbps [10]
450 nm LD 16-QAM-OFDM 6.6 m 3.2 Gbps [11]
520 nm LD NRZ-OOK 7m 2.3 Gbps [12]
532 nm LD NRZ-OOK 2m 1 Gbps [13]
660 nm LD 128-QAM-OFDM 6m 1.324 Gbps [14]
Red LD OOK 30 cm 20 Mbps [15]
450 nm LD NRZ-OOK 12 m 2.0 Gbps This work
450 nm LD NRZ-OOK 20 m 1.5 Gbps This work
a
Light sources: LD stands for laser diode; LED stands for light-emitting diode.
b
Modulation techniques: NRZ stands for non-return-to-zero; OOK stands for on-off-
keying; DPIM stands for discrete pulse interval modulation; QAM stands for quadrature
amplitude modulation; OFDM stands for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing;
OAM stands for orbital angular momentum multiplexing.

It is apparent that the laser diodes (LD) outperform light-emitting diodes (LED) in data
rate when comparing the light sources used in UWOC system. This is further supported by
the demonstrated high data rates from LD based free-space visible light communication
(VLC) systems [16, 17]. Data rates of 1~2 Gbps have reported in LD based UWOC system by
directly modulating the LD using the straightforward on-off-keying (OOK) modulation
scheme. UWOC systems with higher data rates were achieved by employing complex
modulation schemes, such as orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM). However,
the channel length for the demonstrated LD based UWOC link is relatively short (in the range
of 0.3 ~7 m) and the attenuation effect for LD based UWOC system in ~10 meters has not yet
been well studied. As UWOC link over an underwater channel of > 10 meters will usher in
flexibility and pervasiveness in field applications (Fig. 1), it is important to develop a high-
speed and long-range UWOC system using LDs. In this paper, we report on the study of high-
speed LD based UWOC link offering a data rate up to 2 Gbps over a 9-meter /12-meter-long,
and 1.5 Gbps over a record 20-meter-long underwater channel. The 450 nm laser diode is
operating at a relatively small driving current of 80 mA with an optical output power of 51.3
mW. The bit-error rate (BER) for the UWOC system at 2 Gbps over a 9-m, at 2 Gbps over a
12-m, and at 1.5 Gbps over a 20-m underwater channel is measured to be 1.2 × 10−6, 2.8 ×
10−5, and 3.0 × 10−3, respectively, all passing the forward error correction (FEC) limit. Our
demonstrated LD based UWOC system using the least complex and the most cost-effective
 Vol. 24, No. 22 | 31 Oct 2016 | OPTICS EXPRESS 25505

OOK modulation technique extends the UWOC link to 20 meters while maintaining its high
data transmission rate.
2. Experimental details

Fig. 2. Schematic of the experimental setup for laser based underwater optical wireless
communications measurements. The setup consists of a Keysight N4903B J-BERT high-
performance serial bit-error-rate tester with pattern generator, a Keysight 86100C digital
communications analyzer (DCA), a laser diode (LD) and an avalanche photodetector (APD).

Figure 2 presents the schematic of the experimental setup for laser based underwater
optical wireless communications using non-return-to-zero, on-off-keying (NRZ-OOK)
modulation scheme. At the transmitter side, a TO-38 packaged single-mode blue-emitting
laser diode (Osram PL 450B) with collimation lens is mounted on a thermoelectric cooler
(TEC) module (Thorlabs LDM9LP). The laser diode is driven using a Keithley 2400 source
meter as the direct current (DC) source. The pattern generator in the J-BERT (Keysight
N4903B) is used to generate the pseudorandom binary sequence (PRBS) 210-1 pattern, and
the data stream is amplified by the 28-dB driver amplifier (Tektronix PSPL 5868) before
connecting with the 15 GHz broadband bias-tee (Tektronix PSPL 5580). At the receiver side,
a plano-convex lens (Thorlabs LA1027-A) is used to focus the light into the Si avalanche
photodetector (Menlo Systems APD210). A DC blocking filter (Thorlabs T8535) was
connected to the APD. The eye diagram is collected using a digital communications analyzer
(Keysight 86100C DCA), and the BER is measured using J-BERT (Keysight N4903B). A
parametric network analyzer (Keysight E8361C PNA) is used for the small-signal bandwidth
measurement. The laser diode characterization was performed at room temperature. The setup
involves a diode laser testing system (Keithley 2520) for the voltage vs. current and optical
power vs. current measurement as well as a high-resolution spectrometer (Ocean Optics HR
4000) for the spectrum measurement. The water channel in this study was filled with tap
water. The transmission spectrum of tap water sample was measured using a UV-Vis
spectrophotometer (Thermo Fisher Scientific Evolution 600).
3. Results and discussions
The transmission spectrum of the water sample is shown in Fig. 3. Significant attenuation
is identified in the wavelength regime of < 350 nm (UV) as well as > 700 nm (IR). There is a
relatively flat transmission window in the blue-green-yellow color regime, and the
transmission band of 99% maximum transmission (0.99Tmax) is measured to be 395 nm ~670
nm, which is consistent with reported absorption spectrum [18]. Therefore, UWOC system
using laser diodes with emission in violet-blue-green-yellow color regime is expected to
benefit from a minimized spectral beam attenuation.
 Vol. 24, No. 22 | 31 Oct 2016 | OPTICS EXPRESS 25506

Fig. 3. Transmission spectrum of the water sample measured using UV-Vis spectrophotometer.

The light output power – current – voltage (LIV) characteristics of the laser diode (LD)
used in this study is shown in Fig. 4(a). The LD shows a threshold current of 24 mA,
corresponding to a voltage of 4.3 V. At the injection current of 80 mA, the LD has an output
optical power of 51.3 mW. The series resistance and slope efficiency for the LD is calculated
to be 16.3 Ω and 0.91 W/A, respectively. The electroluminescence (EL) spectra of the LD at
different current injections are plotted in Fig. 4(b). A narrow emission peak with a full width
at half maximum (FWHM) of < 1 nm and peak wavelength of ~449 nm was measured. There
is insignificant EL peak shift with increasing injection current from 40 mA to 120 mA. Thus,
the transmission system will be less likely to be affected by the increasing driving current of
the LD. As a result, the water channel distance can be extended by increasing the output
power of the LD, which will bring insignificant change to the emission peak related channel
transmission.

Fig. 4. (a) Voltage vs. current and optical power vs. current characteristics of the laser diode at
room temperature. (b) Optical spectra of the laser diode under increasing injection currents
showing a peak emission at ~449 nm.

As a figure of merit, the small signal frequency response of the system is measured as
shown in Fig. 5(a), which takes into account of both the transmitter, i.e. the laser diode (LD),
and the receiver, i.e. the photodetector (PD). A −3 dB bandwidth of ~1 GHz is measured.
With increasing current of 60 mA to 100 mA, there is an insignificant change of frequency
response. This is different from the behavior of an LD-limiting system, in which the
bandwidth is extended as the bias current increased due to up-shift of the relaxation
oscillation frequency and gain [19]. Considering the fact that the photodetector has a
bandwidth of 1 GHz, the modulation bandwidth of the system is therefore PD-limiting.
Nonetheless, the modulation bandwidth of the presented LD based UWOC system is more
 Vol. 24, No. 22 | 31 Oct 2016 | OPTICS EXPRESS 25507

than ten times higher than those in LED based system [5]. Before the UWOC measurement, a
throughput optimization of the operation point was performed by adjusting the input to the
LD, including the injection current and the modulation signal amplitude. For the NRZ-OOK
modulation of the LD, the changes of BER at different operating current [Fig. 5(b)] and at a
different peak-to-peak voltage from the pattern generator [Fig. 5(c)] were measured at a data
rate of 1.5 Gbps. Generally, a higher DC current will lead to a higher resonance frequency of
the LD, and therefore a better BER performance would be expected. However, it should be
noted that an overly biased operation of a laser diode also declines the throughput response.
As a result, the BER performance will degrade as observed in Fig. 5 (b) when the driving
current goes beyond 80 mA. At low driving voltage, the relative low signal-to-noise ratio may
lead to a high BER. However, if the driving voltage is too high, the signal may also be
affected by the transient heating. The minimized BER is identified at the driving current of 80
mA and encoding amplitude of 230 mV, where the LD exhibits the optimized performance
for high-speed data communication applications.

Fig. 5. (a) Small signal frequency response of the system at different bias currents. The dashed
line indicates the −3 dB bandwidth, which is approximately 1 GHz. (b) The measured bit-error
rate (BER) of OOK modulation by varying the operating current to optimize the LD
performance. (c) Optimization of BER at different peak-to-peak voltages from the pattern
generator. The optimum current of 80 mA was chosen for driving the laser diode.

Aiming at achieving beyond 10-meter LD-based UWOC link, we first studied the BER
performance as a function of the received optical power at 9-meter [Fig. 6(a)] and 12-meter
[Fig. 6(b)] transmission distance when the data rate of the UWOC system varies from 1 Gbps
to 1.5 Gbps and 2 Gbps. The received optical power was attenuated using a series of neutral
density filters (Thorlabs, NEK01) at the receiver side. With increasing water channel length,
an increasing signal attenuation is expected in the UWOC link, as a result of scattering and
absorption. Therefore, the study of BER vs. received optical power is an important approach
to evaluating the minimum required received optical power for the LD based UWOC system
to achieve a certain data rate at a certain transmission distance. For instance, at a 9-m
underwater channel, a received optical power of −19 dBm is required to achieve a BER of 1.0
× 10−3, which is below the FEC limit (3.8 × 10−3), at 1 Gbps. When the data rate increases to 2
Gbps, a minimum received optical power of −16 dBm is required to obtain the similar
performance. This is attributed to an increased signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the UWOC link,
which can be observed from the eye diagrams showing the data transmission at 1 Gbps [Fig. 6
(c)] and 2 Gbps [Fig. 6 (e)]. The BER values are way below 10−8 for data rate up to 1.5 Gbps,
which is observed in both 9-meter and 12-meter UWOC link. At 2 Gbps, the system BER is
1.2 × 10−6 for 9-meter UWOC link and 2.8 × 10−5 for 12-meter UWOC link, which is well
below the FEC limit, confirming the potential for LD based UWOC system to enable Gbps
data transmission link beyond 10 meters.
 Vol. 24, No. 22 | 31 Oct 2016 | OPTICS EXPRESS 25508

Fig. 6. (a)~(b): Measured BER vs. received optical power at 1 Gbps, 1.5 Gbps, and 2 Gbps
after (a) a 9-meter and (b) a 12-meter transmission in underwater. The FEC limit BER of 3. 8 ×
10−3 is labeled. (c)~(f): The measured eye diagrams for OOK modulation at (c) 1 Gbps over a
9-meter, (d) 1 Gbps over a 12-meter, (c) 2 Gbps over a 9-meter, and (d) 2 Gbps over a 12-
meter underwater communication link.

As the optical power in the UWOC system is one of the critical factors affecting the data
rate, we hereby investigate the further extending of the transmission distance, a UWOC
channel of 20 meters as an example, by analyzing the attenuation coefficient of the water
channel. The received optical power through the water channel can be determined by the
Beer–Lambert law [20],
I = I 0 e− cx (1)
where I0 is the transmitted optical power at the transmitter side before entering the water
channel; c is the attenuation coefficient and x is the channel distance. The attenuation effect is
also observed from a reducing received signal amplitude in the eye diagrams when comparing
those measured from a 9-meter UWOC link [Fig. 6(c) and 6(e)] and those from a 12-meter
UWOC link [Fig. 6(d) and 6(f)]. Based on the received optical measurement for the 9-meter
and 12-meter UWOC link, the attenuation coefficient can then be derived as,
1 I
c= ln 9 m = 0.085 (m −1 ) (2)
12 − 9 I12 m
Therefore, the calculated received optical power for a 20-meter UWOC link is 19 µW
(−17.2 dBm). According to the measured BER vs. received optical power relations in Fig. 6,
the presented LD based UWOC system is expected to achieve a data rate of 1.5 Gbps for a
20-meter underwater channel. The channel transmission characteristics, such as the Mie
scattering, will be affected by the concentration and average size of the moving particulates.
For a highly scattered medium, such as harbor water, the transmitted optical signal will suffer
from an increasing attenuation coefficient.
 Vol. 24, No. 22 | 31 Oct 2016 | OPTICS EXPRESS 25509

Figure 7(a) shows the implementation of the LD-based UWOC system for a 20-meter
underwater channel. In order to extend the channel length, a broadband dielectric mirror
(Thorlabs BB4-E02) is used in the setup to reflect the laser beam. The distance between the
laser diode/ photodetector and the mirror is 10 meters, so the total UWOC link is 20 meters.
The measured BER at the date rates of 1 Gbps, 1.25 Gbps, and 1.5 Gbps is shown in Fig.
7(b). At a data rate of 1.5 Gbps, a BER of 3.0 × 10−3 is measured, which passes the FEC limit.
This is consistent with the presented calculation. Besides, the transmission can be further
improved by introducing equalizers at the receiver to reduce the inter-symbol interference.
Open eyes are observed for 20-meter UWOC at 1 Gbps and 1.5 Gbps as in insets of Fig. 7(b).
To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest data rate achieved for underwater wireless
optical communication link exceeding 10 meters.

Fig. 7. (a) Captured photo of the experimental setup for the 20-meter laser based underwater
optical wireless communication link. (b) Measured BER vs. data rate for the 20-meter
underwater transmission. Inset: The eye diagrams of OOK modulation at 1 Gbps and 1.5 Gbps,
respectively.

4. Conclusions
In summary, we have demonstrated a laser diode based underwater wireless optical
communication (UWOC) system with a data rate of 1.5 Gbps over a 20-meter underwater
channel based on a simple NRZ-OOK modulation scheme. The optical transmission
measurement of the water sample suggests that the GaN-based laser diodes emitting in the
violet-blue-green-yellow color regime are better transmitters for UWOC system owing to the
minimized attenuation. The presented UWOC system utilizing a single-mode 450-nm LD as
the transmitter and optimized biasing condition, showed a −3 dB bandwidth of ~1GHz, with
an attenuation coefficient of 0.085 m−1 in tap water. Open eye diagrams and measured FEC
compliant BER for a data rate of up to 2 Gbps were successfully achieved for a 9-meter as
well as a 12-meter UWOC link. The experimental study of UWOC link with various
transmission distances up to 20 meters confirmed that the LD based UWOC system is a
practical and promising platform technique for high-speed data communications applications
underwater, beyond basic demonstration.
Funding
Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) grant through National Priority Research Program
(NPRP) No. 8-648-2-273.