Signal-to-noise ratio reduction due to oceanic turbulence in oceanic wireless optical communication links

Abstract

The effect of oceanic turbulence on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the receiver of an oceanic wireless optical communication (OWOC) link is studied. To quantify such effect, the metric employed is the reduction in the SNR when oceanic turbulence is present. SNR reduction due to oceanic turbulence is formulated by subtracting the 10 log (SNR) evaluated at the receiver in the presence of turbulence from the 10 log (SNR) evaluated at the receiver in the absence of turbulence. Classical SNR formula which is function of the received optical power, noise and optical detector parameters is utilized. As the average received power, our earlier result that uses a Gaussian optical source field and a finite Gaussian receiver aperture in atmospheric turbulence is adapted for oceanic turbulence and such found average received power is inserted in the SNR expression. OWOC links that use collimated Gaussian optical sources at the transmitter and PIN photodiode, avalanche photodiode (APD) at the receiver, are analyzed. Results that present the variations of the SNR reduction due to oceanic turbulence against the changes in the source, oceanic turbulence and the optical receiver parameters are reported.