OCEANIC TURBULENCE EFFECT ON UNDERWATER VISIBLE LIGHT COMMUNICATION

Underwater Visible Light Communication (UVLC) has the potential to replace acoustic/RF systems with high-speed, low-latency oceanic exploration, research, and environmental monitoring links. Turbulence, generated by temperature/salinity gradients and water currents, causes performance degradation through fading and path loss. In this paper, the effect of turbulence is evaluated using a Nakagami-m channel model with consideration of Bit Error Rate (BER) for On-off keying (OOK) and Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) modulations under weak (k=10), moderate (k=3), and strong turbulence (k=0.8). Simulations probe single- and multi-LED configurations in pure, coastal, and turbid waters. Results indicate that multi-LED arrays offer near-error-free links (BER <10⁻⁴ at 40 dB Signal-to-Noise Ratio(SNR)) in weak turbulence, much better than single-LED configurations by orders of magnitude. Coastal water has the poorest BER due to scattering, with pure seawater having the best performance. Turbulence strength k=0.8 demands higher SNR, indicating the effect of spatial diversity in combating fading. Multi-LED architectures enhance UVLC resilience by dispersing signal routes, reducing turbulence-induced fluctuations. In addition, BPSK demonstrates greater resilience than OOK under high-turbulence regimes. These findings provide critical design insight into building resilient underwater networks, emphasizing spatial diversity and modulation selection to counteract channel degradations. The study finds the feasibility of UVLC in turbulent channels, supporting green solutions to underwater communication issues.