ABSTRACT
In this study, we examined the performance of an underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) system employing a single-input to multiple-output (SIMO) scheme and proposed an equalization equal gain combining (EEGC) algorithm for it under Gaussian beam conditions. Furthermore, based on a Yue spectrum with the instability of oceanic water stratification and a finite outer scale, we derived the closed analytical formulas for the scintillation index and spatial coherence radius in weak oceanic turbulence for a Gaussian beam, from which we could obtain the threshold of the detector spacing and the strength of oceanic turbulence. We then derived the closed-form formula for the upper bound average bit error rate of the EEGC SIMO system with ON-OFF keying modulation by using the hyperbolic tangent distribution function. Our simulations demonstrate two issues if oceanic water stratification is treated as a steady state: the performance of the diversity receiver system will be significantly underestimated in salinity-dominated weak oceanic turbulence channels and will be significantly overestimated in temperature-dominated weak oceanic turbulence channels. Additionally, the SIMO system performance improvement using the proposed EEGC algorithm was more evident with increasing detector spacing, and the EEGC algorithm reduced the impact of the layout of the avalanche photodiode arrays on the UWOC system performance, in contrast to the equal gain combining algorithm.