Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0009-0007-9552-9538
Date of Award
2025
Document Type
Thesis (Master's)
Department or Program
Computer Science
First Advisor
Adithya k Pediredla
Second Advisor
Alberto Quattrini Li
Third Advisor
Xia Zhou
Abstract
This work introduces a novel, and high-speed underwater backscatter communication system based on acousto-optic light steering. The proposed approach enables underwater assets to achieve data transmission rates potentially reaching hundreds of megabits per second ( Mbps ), surpassing the performance of existing optical and acoustic backscatter techniques, which are typically limited to a few kilobits per second (kbps ). Communication is established by probing an underwater backscatter device with a pulsed laser from a base station, and detecting the retroreflected signal using an ultrafast photodetector. The backscatter device comprises a retroreflector and an ultrasound transducer, which generates pressure waves to modulate the refractive index of the surrounding medium spatio-temporally. This modulation steers the incident light either toward the detector (encoding bit 1 ) or away from it (encoding bit 0 ). A custom-built prototype incorporating a 2 MHz transducer demonstrates the technique’s feasibility. Utilizing a 3-bit redundancy scheme, the system achieves communication rates up to 0.66 Mbps, 60× greater than the current state-of-the-art. Extensive experiments, including multimedia data transmission from remote underwater assets under various environmental conditions, validate the system’s performance and robustness
Recommended Citation
Agarwal, Atul Rohit, "Underwater Optical Backscatter Communications using Acousto-Optic Beam Steering" (2025). Dartmouth College Master’s Theses. 223.
https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/masters_theses/223
