Synchronization, identification, and signal detection for underwater photon-counting communications with input-dependent shot noise
Author Identifier (ORCID)
Abstract
Photon counting (PhC) is an effective detection technology for underwater optical wireless communication (OWC) systems. The presence of signal-dependent Poisson shot noise and asynchronous multi-user interference (MUI) complicates the processing of received data signals, hindering the effective signal detection of PhC OWC systems. This paper proposes a novel iterative signal detection method in grant-free, multi-user, underwater PhC OWC systems with signal-dependent Poisson shot noise. We first introduce a new synchronization algorithm with a unique frame structure design. The algorithm performs active user identification and transmission delay estimation. Specifically, the estimation is performed first on a user group basis and then at the individual user level with reduced complexity and latency.We also develop a nonlinear iterative multi-user detection (MUD) algorithm that utilizes a detection window for each user to identify interfering symbols and estimate MUI on a slot-by-slot basis, followed by maximum a-posteriori probability detection of user signals. Simulations demonstrate that our scheme achieves bit error rates comparable to scenarios with transmission delays known and signal detection perfectly synchronized.
Keywords
Non-orthogonal multiple-access, Photon counting, underwater optical wireless communication
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
1-1-2025
Publication Title
IEEE Transactions on Communications
Publisher
IEEE
School
School of Engineering
Funders
National Natural Science Foundation of China (62571137, 62231010, 62501381) / Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (24ZR1407100)
Copyright
subscription content
Comments
Li, F., Zhou, X., Chen, Y., Ni, W., Wang, X., Niyato, D., & Hossain, E. (2025). Synchronization, identification, and signal detection for underwater photon-counting communications with input-dependent shot noise. IEEE Transactions on Communications, 74, 2595–2611. https://doi.org/10.1109/TCOMM.2025.3647758