Optics and Photonics Society of Iran

In this paper, regarding the importance of investigation of optical turbulence limiting effects on laser beam propagation through water, and thus on the performance of underwater wireless optical communication systems, the effect of refractive index fluctuations resulting from temperature fluctuations on some of the most important underwater communication link parameters such as the average received power, Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) and normalized power variance (Scintillation index) has been investigated empirically. The experimental results indicate that the temperature fluctuations in water refractive index variations related to atmospheric have greater impact on the parameters of the communication link. Increasing the distance of the turbulence screen generated by temperature fluctuations from the transmitter plane, scintillation index decreased and therefore, SNR increases. Also, increasing aperture diameter of the receiver optics reduces the normalized power variance and therefore increases the SNR.