Performance analysis of an underwater wireless optical communication link with Lommel beam

Abstract

Abstract In order to mitigate the stochastic interference of underwater channels and improve the quality of underwater communication systems, it is essential to study the performance of the underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) links utilizing vortex beams with unique attributes. In this paper, the analytical formulae for the bit error rate (BER) and the average capacity of the UWOC link with diffraction-free Lommel beam are derived under the Rytov theory. Simulation results demonstrate that the system with a long wavelength, a high system signal-to-noise ratio(SNR), a small asymmetric parameter and receiving aperture diameter achieves a high average capacity and a low BER. Furthermore, in the underwater channel with a larger kinetic energy dissipation rate per unit mass of fluid and inner scale, a smaller mean-squared temperature dissipation rate, temperature salinity contribution ratio and transmission distance, the performance of the communication link can be improved. Meanwhile, it is found that the performance of the link with carrier Lommel beam are less sensitive to the topological charge, the scaling factor of the beam and the turbulent outer scale. These findings provide theoretical support for the design and implementation of an UWOC link utilizing the Lommel beam.