Optical link management

A method of managing an optical link to communicate data via an aqueous medium, comprising:

• providing a seismic data acquisition unit on a seabed in the aqueous medium, the seismic data acquisition unit comprising one or more sensor to detect acoustic waves that indicate subsurface lithologic formations or hydrocarbon deposits, and a seismic data recorder to record seismic data corresponding to the acoustic waves detected by one or more sensors;
• receiving, by a first link manager agent of the seismic data acquisition unit, through the aqueous medium from a second link manager agent of an underwater vehicle, a default optical transmission
• transmitting, by the first link manager agent of the seismic data acquisition unit, to the second link manager agent of the underwater vehicle, a first optical transmission at a first output level, the first optical transmission comprising a first packet corresponding to a network protocol;
• receiving, by the first link manager agent of the seismic data acquisition unit, one or more additional default transmissions from the underwater vehicle having a same parameter as the default optical transmission previously received from the underwater vehicle;
• determining, by the first link manager agent, that the second link manager agent failed to receive the first packet via the first optical transmission;
• determining a distance between the seismic data acquisition unit and the underwater vehicle based on a phase error in one or more optical signals;
• and
• transmitting a second optical transmission at a second output level different than the first output level over the distance between the seismic data acquisition unit and the underwater vehicle;
• identifying that a second packet from the second optical transmission was successfully received by the second link manager agent;
• and
• establishing the second output level as a transmission output level for the seismic data acquisition unit.