Integrated blue light phased arrays enabling underwater optical wireless networks: towards a new era of Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT)

Introduction

The Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) is defined as a worldwide network of smart interconnected underwater objects, poised to revolutionize a number of related technologies including:

• Ocean monitoring observatories
• Underwater exploration and resource exploitation
• Disaster prediction and prevention
• Aquaculture
• Defense/security

Requirements for IoUT

The establishment of the IoUT requires sensing, localization, and data transmission functionalities, which are mostly achieved through the use of underwater wireless sensor networks. These networks consist of small, intelligent, and battery-powered sensors.

A crucial point is to enable the transmission of the collected data over relatively large distances with:

1. High speed
2. Low power consumption
3. Low environmental impact

Underwater Optical Wireless Communication

Underwater optical wireless communication (UOWC) represents a promising technology with the potential to address these requirements. However, the current UOWC technology suffers from several drawbacks, mainly related to:

• Beam misalignment
• Low localization accuracy underwater

These issues make it unviable to meet the requirements for establishing the IoUT.

BlueArray's Approach

BlueArray will explore breakthrough technologies for the next generation of UOWC systems with the ambition of achieving unprecedented underwater data connectivity. This includes requirements in terms of:

• Range
• Energy efficiency
• Node mobility
• Low environmental impact

To face the numerous related challenges, BlueArray will undertake a radically new approach by enabling efficient and high-speed optical beam steering, featuring:

• Low loss
• Narrow beam
• Large field-of-view

Technological Advancements

This is accomplished through advancing:

• Blue VCSELs
• Blue optical phased arrays (OPAs)
• Large-scale array of digital-to-analog converters
• Coherent receiver technologies

These advancements will have a complexity going well beyond the state-of-the-art.

Conclusion

By developing such an integrated blue OPA-based UOWC technology, BlueArray will enable cost-effective, robust, and scalable UOWC systems, allowing the deployment of large-scale IoUT.