Physical-layer security of underwater wireless optical communication systems under non-line-of-sight eavesdropping
Kun Li, Chao Chen, Jianhua Ji +1 more
Abstract This work investigates physical-layer security of underwater wireless optical communication systems under covert non-line-of-sight (NLOS) eavesdropping caused by scattered photons. A first-order single-scattering model is developed for the near-transmitter NLOS eavesdropping link by incorporating seawater absorption, scattering, beam divergence, receiver field of view, and Eve’s geometry. Turbulence-induced fading on the legitimate line-of-sight link is also considered. Based on photon-counting detection, secrecy capacity, interception probability, and secrecy outage probability are analyzed. Results show that stronger scattering enlarges the high-risk region of NLOS information leakage, while stronger Bob-link turbulence degrades the secrecy performance of the system. A comparison with multiple-scattering Monte Carlo photon tracing for Jerlov IB and Jerlov II waters shows close agreement in the dominant spatial photon-count distribution.
Journal of Optics•Sep 17, 2026•0 citations