2017 16th International Conference on Optical Communications and Networks (ICOCN)
A Long-distance Underwater Laser Communication System
with Photon-counting Receiver
Tianhua Zhou, Siqi Hu, Le Mi, Xiaolei Zhu, Weibiao Chen
Key Laboratory of Space Laser Communication and Detection Technology, Shanghai Institute of
Optics and Fine Mechanics, 390 Qinghe Road, Jiading District, Shanghai, China, 201800
Correspondence: siomzth@siom.ac.cn
ABSTRACT
We design and demonstrate a long-distance underwater
optical communication system with photon-counting
receiver. Monte-Carlo simulations are conducted to
determine system parameters and estimate system
performance. According to the simulation results, a Q-
switched all solid state 532nm laser with pulse energy of
100uJ@10kHz is used as the optical source of
transmitter. A telescope with 1° field of view, 100mm
clear aperture, and a photon counting detector is used to
collect the laser in the photon-counting receiver. We then
present an experimental implementation in a long tank
filled with clean water. The experimental results show
that optical communication is established over a
distance of 85m(~24 optical attenuation lengths) at a
data rate of 80kbps.
Keywords: Underwater Laser Communication,
Photon-counting Receiver, Monte-Carlo simulation
1. INTRODUCTION
The growing need for ocean observation systems has
stimulated considerable interest in underwater optical
communication technologies. Many successful
underwater optical communication (UOC) systems, such
as BlueComm, and underwater laser communication
(ULC) systems, such as NepTune, have been
reported[1][2]. Due to the absorption and the scattering
of water, the light undergoes energy loss, angular
diffusion, temporal spreading and spatial dispersion,
which limit the maximum transmission distance[3].
Adopting more sensitive detector will extend the
available maximum distance. In this paper, we have
designed and demonstrated a long-distance underwater
laser communication system with photon-counting
receiver. Monte-Carlo simulations are applied to
determine system parameters and estimate system
performance. An underwater laser communication
system with photon-counting receiver is developed, and
one long-range tank demonstration of underwater laser
communication is conducted. One optical
communication link is established over a distance of 85m
(~24 optical attenuation lengths).The demonstration
successfully accomplished objective. The experiment
and summary results are described in this paper.
978-1-5386-3273-4/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
2. SYSTEM DESIGN
Fig. 1 shows the schematic of the designed long-distance
underwater laser communication system. The
communication procedure is as follows. The information
that needs to be transmitted is firstly inputted to the
transmitter. After encoding and modulation, the signal is
sent to the driving circuit to control the laser output. In
the receiver, laser pulse is focused on the single photon
detector through collection optics and then be converted
to single photon pulse sequence by the detector. After
signal processing, demodulation and decoding, the
extracted information is outputted to the control panel to
store and display.
Fig.1 Schematic of the designed long-distance underwater
communication system. E, encoder; M, modulator; Dr, driving circuit;
L, laser; CO, collection optics; D, detector; SP, signal processing; Dm,
demodulator; Dc, decoder.
All solid state Q-switched green laser at 532nm has the
features of high peak power, high repetition rate, and
short pulse duration, which is widely used in LIDAR and
ULC[4]. Single-photon detectors are the key components
behind many of the new and emerging photonic
technologies. This device is able to detect low-intensity
signals (down to the single photon) and to signal the
arrival times of the photons[5]. The intensity of the
signal is obtained by photon counting the number of
output pulses within a measurement time slot. The main
parameters of the designed long-distance underwater
laser communication system are shown in Table 1. A
self-designed all solid state Q-switched green laser at
532nm with pulse energy of 100uJ@10kHz is used as the
optical source of transmitter. The pulse width of laser is
about 4ns. A telescope with 1Ʊ field of view, 100mm
clear aperture is used as collection optics, and a photon
counting PMT is used as single photon detector in the
photon-counting receiver. A 532nm filter with 1nm
bandwidth is used to suppress ambient light. The
transmitter and receiver are sealed in a cylindrical water-
tight container.
 2017 16th International Conference on Optical Communications and Networks (ICOCN)
Table 1 System parameters.
Pulse Position Modulation (PPM) is adopted to make the
most of the high peak power. Moreover, forward error
correction is also adopted to increase communication
reliability[6]. Fig.2 shows the data frame structure. ܶ௟
is the slot width of one pulse, ܶ௙ is the whole time of
one frame data, ܶ௖௡ is the whole time of one byte data,
and ܶ௧௛ is the whole time of frame head. In the practical
system, we adopted 256PPM and Reed-Solomon code.
The analytical results show that the designed transmitter
system can accomplish communication with a speed as
high as 80kbps. In the transmitter, the FPGA
accomplishes Reed-Solomon codes encoding of the
information need to be sent and the modulation of the
information encoded. In the receiver, the FPGA
accomplishes decoding and demodulation of the
received information.
(a)
(b)
Fig.2 (a) Data frame structure. (b) One frame data
3. MONTE-CARLO SIMULATION
Monte Carlo modeling of light transportation is a
numerical way to simulate photon transport. Monte
Carlo method is widely used in multi-scattering channel
simulation, its validation has been proved by many
experiments and the simulation procedure is intuitive and
easy to be understood[7]. Generally speaking, Monte
Carlo method is based on the brute tracing of packets of
photon. The interactions of laser pulse with water are
treated as the collisions between packets of photon and
particles. Fig.3 shows the propagation procedure of a
packet of packets of photon. The global coordinate O-xyz
is also shown. L denotes transmission distance. The
procedure consists of initialization, scattering of packets
978-1-5386-3273-4/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
of photon, and receiving judgment. The “propagating-
scattering” procedure is repeated until the energy of one
packet of photon is too small to be negligible. By Monte
Carlo simulations, we can obtain the energy, location,
propagation direction and path length of the photon
packets on the receiving plane.
Fig. 3 Schematic of propagation procedure of one packet of photon
A series of simulations have been conducted to
determine the optimal system parameters and estimate
the system performance. The important parameters of the
water used in simulations include absorption
coefficient ܽ , scattering coefficient ܾ and asymmetry
factor g. Attenuation coefficientܿ ൌ ܽ ൅ ܾ[8]. We have
measured the attenuation coefficient of tank
water ܿ =0.29/m by CSTAR of WetLabs. In this
simulation, we adopt a=0.073/m, b=0.217/m, and
g=0.924. Photon-counting sequence of a frame of data
obtained after long-distance propagation are shown in
Fig.4 (a). To keep the bit error rate of 10-5, the number of
photon of one pulse is about 12, and the distance is about
89.6m. Fig.4 (b) shows the simulated pulse shape of laser
after same distance propagation in water. The FWHM
pulse width is extended to about 60ns. The laser beam
have become fully scattered light after about maximum
distance (~26 optical attenuation lengths), which will
cause inter symbol interference (ISI) and limit the
bandwidth of system[9].
(a)
(b)
Fig.4 (a) Simulated photon-counting sequence of data frame. (b)
Simulated pulse shape.
 2017 16th International Conference on Optical Communications and Networks (ICOCN)
4. POOL DEMONSTRATION
In the tank, we successfully conducted the underwater
laser communication. Fig.5 shows the transmission of
laser beam underwater in tank. The attenuation
coefficient is measured by CSTAR from WetLabs. The
average value of attenuation coefficient is 0.29/m, which
have been adopted in MC simulation.
Fig.5 Underwater laser beam of the tank experiment
The received timing sequence of a frame of data
transmitted and sampled photon-counting sequence of a
frame of data obtained by oscilloscope are shown in
Fig.6. The transmitted laser pulse is regenerated real
time. These experimental results show that optical
communication is established over a distance of 85.2m
(~24 optical attenuation lengths) at a data rate of 80kbps
with a bit error rate less than 10-5. Compared with 89.6m
in MC simulation, the bias proportion is about 5%.
Fig.6 Received signal sequence of single pulse and regenerated signal
pulse
5. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a long-distance underwater laser
communication system has been designed based on
Monte Carlo simulation, where 532nm green pulse laser
is used as source to enhance peak power at the
transmitter, and a PMT type single photon detector is
used at the receiver to improve detection sensitivity.
Simulation results show that the communication distance
could be extend to about 89.6m in tank water with
attenuation coefficient c=0.29/m. Field test experiment
has been demonstrated in tank water. The experiment
results show that the system can realize 85.2m (~24
978-1-5386-3273-4/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
optical attenuation lengths) communication in tank
water(c=0.29/m), with a data rate of 80kbps and a bit
error rate less than 10-5. The demonstration successfully
accomplished objective. The system can be used to
transfer multimedia information, such as data, voice, and
video[10]. In the near future, the FOV of receiver will be
improved to 10° from 1 r . We will perform some
modified experimental measurements on the new long-
distance underwater laser communication system with
photon-counting receiver.
6. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work is supported by the Ministry of Science and
Technology of China (Grant No.2014AA093301).
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