Underwater turbulence, its effects on optical wireless communication and imaging: A review

Abstract

Theory of optical turbulence in underwater medium and the effects of underwater turbulence on various applications done in underwater or under ocean are reviewed. A detailed survey of underwater turbulence studies in literature is reported. Underwater physics covering salinity, temperature and dissipation rates, various power spectra such as Hill, Nikishov and Nikishov, Li, new form and the oceanic turbulence optical power spectrum (OTOPS) spectra are explained. Wave and phase structure functions, related coherence length, anisotropy, intensity, field correlations in underwater turbulence are elaborated. Scintillation indices of spherical, plane, Gaussian, and other types of optical beams are mentioned. Bit-error-rate (BER), signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) performances of optical wireless communication systems operating in underwater, and the effects of modulation types of these systems on the performances are reported. Channel capacity of underwater optical wireless communication systems when the channel experiences log-normal, gamma-gamma, Weibull, and negative exponential statistics are reflected. Underwater imaging and the related modulation transfer function, underwater turbulence mitigation techniques in the form of aperture averaging, adaptive optics, receiver, transmitter and multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) spatial diversity techniques are revised.