A system for providing underwater communication using orbital angular momentum (OAM) includes a transmitter that processes input data to be transmitted using pre-coding information based on current transmission channel conditions to maximize data rate based on channel conditions. A receiver receives a transmitted multiplexed OAM optical signal and analyzes the received signal for channel state information. The channel state information is used to determine a set of pre-coding values that allow the transmitter to pre-code the input data to maximize the data rate based on current channel conditions. The pre-coding values are mapped to a codebook entry which identifies the pre-coding values. The codebook entry is transmitted from the receiver to the transmitter. The transmitter uses the received codebook entry to identify pre-coding values used to process subsequent input data to be transmitted in order to enhance data rate across the transmit channel.