26 m/5.5 Gbps air-water optical wireless communication based on an OFDM-modulated 520-nm laser diode.

We experimentally demonstrate a high-speed air-water optical wireless communication system with both downlink and uplink transmission employing 32-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and a single-mode pigtailed green-light laser diode (LD). This work is an important step towards the future study on optical wireless communications between underwater platforms and airborne terminals. Over a 5-m air channel and a 21-m water channel, we achieve a 5.3-Gbps transmission without power loading (PL) and a 5.5-Gbps transmission with PL in the downlink. The corresponding bit error rates (BERs) are 2.64×10-3 and 2.47×10-3, respectively, which are below the forward error correction (FEC) criterion. A data rate of 5.5 Gbps with PL at a BER of 2.92×10-3 is also achieved in the uplink.