An End-to-End Signal Strength Model for Underwater Optical Communications

In this paper, we present a generic model of signal strength in underwater optical communications. The model includes light sources, detectors, amplifier and detector circuitry, optics, as well as a simple extinction model of the water channel. The end-to-end model provides insights into optimization approaches for underwater optical modems and enables relative pose estimation between underwater optical transmitters and receivers. We instantiate our model to the AquaOptical model by determining its parameters and verifying the model prediction in a suite of pool experiments.