Photonics HandbookBusiness
Kyocera Details Underwater Optical Communication Advancement
KYOTO, Japan, Nov. 13, 2025 — Kyocera Corporation said this week that it has demonstrated underwater wireless optical communication technology capable of short-range data transmission at 5.2 Gbps, among the fastest fiber-less such technologies demonstrated to date, according to the company. The development could enable real-time large-volume data transmission for ocean exploration and underwater robot operations. These opportunities could in turn provide immediate access to high-resolution images, video feeds, and sensor data, and support more efficient underwater research and robot control.
Kyocera's ultra high-speed underwater wireless optical communication technology demonstrated short-range data transmission at 5.2 Gbps. Courtesy of Kyocera Corporation.
The technology benefits from the development of a proprietary physical layer to convert streams of digital data into beams of laser light. Standard specifications draw heavily on wired and general wireless technologies and often falter underwater. Kyocera’s original communications standards provide stability and capacity for underwater data transfer using advanced, high-speed systems custom tailored to the challenges of underwater environments.
By applying the original communication specifications, Kyocera developed an optical front-end circuit with a wide bandwidth >1 GHz that fully leverages the bandwidth characteristics of optical semiconductor components. This enables users to transmit significantly more information in the same timeframe, making activities like live underwater video streaming, sensor data transfer, and collaborative inspections faster and more reliable.
Potential applications include the real-time sharing of high-definition video from autonomous underwater vehicles, high precision inspection of underwater structures, immediate acquisition of large-volume data in ocean research, and simultaneous data collection from multiple underwater sensors.
Future development to increase communication distance and capacity could accelerate technological innovation in the marine industry and academic research, according to Kyocera. Further, it could contribute to the construction of next-generation marine information and communications technology infrastructure.
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