Optical wireless communication for underwater internet of things

Overview

Abstract

Underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) has attracted increasing interest in various underwater activities because of its order-of-magnitude higher bandwidth compared to acoustic and radio-frequency technologies. Testbeds and pre-aligned UWOC links were constructed for physical layer evaluation, which verified that UWOC systems can operate at tens of gigabits per second or close to a hundred meters of distance. This hold promises for realizing a globally connected Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT). However, due to the fundamental complexity of the ocean water environment, there are considerable practical challenges in establishing reliable UWOC links. Thus, in addition to providing a general overview of recent advances in UWOC, this talk addresses various underwater challenges and offers insights into the solutions.

Biography

Boon S. Ooi (Fellow, U.S. National Academy of Inventors, IEEE, OSA, SPIE and InstP) is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at KAUST (Saudi Arabia). He received the Ph.D. degree in electronics and electrical engineering from the University of Glasgow (Scotland, UK). He has served as a faculty member at Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) and Lehigh University (Pennsylvania, USA). His research interest includes the study of III-V and III-Nitride based materials and devices, and their applications in optical sensors and optical communications. He has served on the editorial board of IEEE Photonics Journal and OSA Optics Express. He is Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.