Japanese tech company Kyocera has developed underwater optical communications (UWOC) technology that enables short-distance, high-speed wireless communication. According to its press release , this allows data transmission speeds of up to 5.2 Gbps in freshwater laboratory settings, which is much faster than the few Mbps that typical underwater acoustic communications systems achieve.
The company achieved this by developing a laser specifically tailored for underwater communications using its own protocols and physical layers. Aside from that, it has an optical front-end circuit — the hardware that converts light into electrical signals — that can hit bandwidths greater than 1 GHz, making it around 2.5x faster than its competition.
This development is crucial for advancing underwater drone technologies, as it enables them to stream data to users on the surface or aboard a mothership, including high-resolution photos, a live video feed, and sensor data. This makes them useful for underwater inspections and can even be used to simultaneously communicate with multiple sensors for comprehensive data collection.
This still would not replace underwater fiber-optic cables for long-distance communication, though, as UWOC are typically limited to around 100 meters. Since the laser travels through water, this can greatly impact its range. And because it requires line-of-sight, you cannot use UWOC to control a drone for exploration, and even passing marine life can disrupt the connection.
However, it’s great for specific applications, especially with its high speed, massive bandwidth, and low latency. It’s also harder to intercept versus acoustic signals, which propagate in the water in all directions, and are heavily affected by environmental noise like ship engines and the sound emitted by large undersea mammals.
Aside from controlling underwater drones, this technology could also be used for communicating with permanently installed sensors. These can be used for monitoring undersea infrastructure, including fiber optic cables and pipelines, as well as for automatically tracking tagged marine wildlife when they come within range of a UWOC sensor. It may even serve in military applications, where it can be used to communicate with underwater drones launched from submarines or larger boats.
Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.
