Shrimp: a robust underwater visible light communication system

Abstract

This paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of Shrimp, an underwater visible light communication (VLC) system. To address the unique issues in underwater environment such as water flow and scattered sunlight interference, we exploit the circularly polarized light (CPL) and double links for underwater VLC transmission. A coding scheme tailored for underwater communication based on double CPL design is developed. We prototype Shrimp on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) LEDs with fabricated printed circuit boards (PCBs). Extensive experiments conducted in an indoor water pool, a lake, and the sea demonstrate that Shrimp can combat against environmental interference and achieve robust communication in underwater environments. The communication distance can be up to 3 m in sea/lake water using a 3 W commodity LED, outperforming the VLC schemes designed for in-air communication.