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Photonics
Special Issues
Challenges and Opportunities in Underwater Wireless Optical Communications
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Challenges and Opportunities in Underwater Wireless Optical Communications

A special issue of Photonics (ISSN 2304-6732). This special issue belongs to the section "Optical Communication and Network".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 July 2025 | Viewed by 3027

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Jing Xu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Optical Communications Laboratory, Ocean College, Zhejiang University, Zheda Road 1, Zhoushan 316021, China
Interests: underwater optical wireless communication; deep-sea observation technique; underwater communication
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Yanlong Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Cognitive Radio and Information Processing, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin 541004, China
Interests: machine learning; wireless communication; underwater optical communication and network; 5G/6G; ad hoc network
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Yang Qiu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Key Laboratory of Electronic and Information Engineering, State Ethnic Affairs Commission, College of Electronic and Information, Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu, China
Interests: optical fiber communications; underwater wireless optical communications
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, we have witnessed increased interest in ocean exploration due to the foreseeable depletion of several oceanic resources and rapid global climate changes. Underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC), featuring large bandwidth, small delay and strong anti-interference ability, has proven its value in various applications, such as data and real-time video transmission, telemetry, disaster prevention, environmental surveillance, offshore exploration, and oceanographic studies, etc. However, underwater light attenuation, scattering and turbulence can cause spatial, temporal, polarization, and phase distortion in the emitted optical signals, which substantially restricts the transmission performances. To achieve long-reach, efficient, secure, and high-speed UOWC, researchers have focused on developing new communication mechanisms, novel transceivers, and new signal processing algorithms.

This Special Issue aims to provide a platform for the recent advances and innovations in UOWC. You are cordially invited to submit original research articles or perspective reviews, including the recent trends and developments regarding the current state-of-the-art UOWC. The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:

  • New advances and challenges of UOWC;
  • Emerging UOWC technologies;
  • Coding, detection, and modulation schemes for UOWC;
  • Non-orthogonal multiple access techniques for UOWC;
  • Experiments, trials, and testbeds for UOWC;
  • Fiber-wireless communication systems;
  • Hybrid underwater optical wireless networks;
  • Single-photon detector-based communication;
  • Detector sensors, high-efficiency photodetectors for UOWC systems;
  • Optical light sources for UOWC systems;
  • Characterization of aquatic optical channels;
  • Machine-learning-based algorithms for UOWC;
  • UOWC positioning and localization;
  • Scattering and oceanic turbulence mitigation techniques;

Oceanic turbulence modeling and simulation.

Prof. Dr. Jing Xu
Dr. Yanlong Li
Prof. Dr. Yang Qiu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Photonics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • underwater optical wireless communication
  • underwater visible light communication
  • optical communication
  • optical communication network

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 9309 KiB  
Article
Research on Rate Adaptation of Underwater Optical Communication with Joint Control of Photoelectric Domain
by Yu Chen, Hongbing Qiu and Yanlong Li
Photonics 2024, 11(11), 1004; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics11111004 - 25 Oct 2024
Viewed by 727
Abstract
As the communication distance changes, the received signal strength of an underwater optical communication system will change, and the range of its variation may not only exceed the dynamic range of the photoelectric detection device but also cause the reliability of communication to [...] Read more.
As the communication distance changes, the received signal strength of an underwater optical communication system will change, and the range of its variation may not only exceed the dynamic range of the photoelectric detection device but also cause the reliability of communication to change due to the change in the received signal-to-noise ratio. In order to maintain better communication over a longer distance, this paper proposes a rate-adaptive method for underwater optical communication with joint control in the photoelectric domain. In the optical domain, the incident light’s power is adaptively adjusted by controlling the transmittance of the liquid crystal light valve to reduce saturation distortion. In the electrical domain, the constellation distribution is optimized according to the desired probability mass function, and the modulation order is adjusted in real time by estimating the received signal-to-noise ratio of the link. The simulation results show that under the forward error correction (FEC) threshold, the proposed method increases the dynamic range of the photomultiplier tube (PMT) by about 10 dB and expands the dynamic range of the system’s communication distance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges and Opportunities in Underwater Wireless Optical Communications)
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8 pages, 3071 KiB  
Communication
On-Chip Multichannel Dispersion Compensation and Wavelength Division MUX/DeMUX Using Chirped-Multimode-Grating-Assisted Counter-Directional Coupler
by Zhixiao Lv, Jiangbing Du and Zuyuan He
Photonics 2024, 11(2), 110; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics11020110 - 25 Jan 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1530
Abstract
On-chip optical dispersion compensation and wavelength division multiplexing/demultiplexing (WDM) are highly demanded functions for optical communications. In this work, we proposed a multichannel dispersion compensation structure based on chirped multimode grating within a counter-directional coupler (CMG-CDC). Simultaneous wavelength division multiplexing and demultiplexing can [...] Read more.
On-chip optical dispersion compensation and wavelength division multiplexing/demultiplexing (WDM) are highly demanded functions for optical communications. In this work, we proposed a multichannel dispersion compensation structure based on chirped multimode grating within a counter-directional coupler (CMG-CDC). Simultaneous wavelength division multiplexing and demultiplexing can be realized within a compact footprint. A device design for four-channel CMG-CDC at the C/L (1530–1565 nm) band is presented with a channel spacing of 20 nm assisted by a grooved multimode waveguide structure. The average dispersion for all channels is about −2.25 ps/nm with a channel bandwidth of about 3.1 nm. The device is highly compact and highly scalable, which makes it rather convenient for increasing the group velocity dispersion (GVD) and channel number, indicating flexible applications for versatile systems, including typically coarse wavelength division multiplexer four-lane (CWDM4) transceivers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges and Opportunities in Underwater Wireless Optical Communications)
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Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

Title: 3D Localization of Mobile Underwater Nodes Using Airborne Visible Light Beams
Authors: Fow-Sen Choa; Jaeed Bin Saif
Affiliation: Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Department, University of Maryland
Abstract: Localizing underwater nodes when they cannot be tethered or float on the surface presents significant challenges, primarily due to node mobility and the absence of fixed anchors with known coordinates. This paper advocates a strategy for tackling such a challenge by using Visible Light Communication (VLC) from an airborne unit. A novel localization method is proposed where VLC transmissions are made towards the water surface, each is encoded with the GPS coordinates with the incident point of the corresponding light beam. Unlike prior work that assumes that the node has a pressure sensor, the proposed method utilizes the intensity of VLC signals to estimate the position of the underwater node in the absence of depth information. The idea is to map the light intensity at the underwater receiver for both normal and titled airborne light beams and devise a least square error optimization to estimate the 3D coordinates of the underwater node. Extensive simulations validate the effectiveness of this method and illustrate its performance across various parameters.

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