Beam wander in wireless optical communications between misaligned transceivers in oceanic turbulence

Area of Science:

• Underwater optical wireless communication
• Turbulence effects on light propagation

Background:

• Oceanic turbulence significantly impacts optical beam propagation.
• Underwater platforms experience positional and attitude changes, causing transceiver misalignment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate beam wander in oceanic turbulence.
• To account for misaligned displacements in underwater wireless optical communication.
• To formulate a model for beam wander variance and mean pointing error.

Main Methods:

• Deriving longitudinal and radial distances based on transceiver misalignment.
• Formulating the beam wander variance for a Gaussian beam in oceanic turbulence.
• Expressing mean pointing error displacements.

Main Results:

• The beam wander variance in underwater optical communication was determined based on longitudinal distance.
• A method to quantify beam wander considering transceiver misalignment was established.

Conclusions:

• The developed model accurately predicts beam wander variance in oceanic turbulence.
• Understanding beam wander is crucial for reliable underwater optical communication systems.