Performance analysis of passive time reversal communication technique for multi-path interference with synthetic data

Abstract

The interference by time-varying and intense underwater acoustic multi-path is one of the most obstructive phenomena in underwater acoustic communication. Time-Reversal (TR) communication techniques utilize the reciprocity of acoustic channels to converge the spread signals to the original one, and are considered one of the most effective methods to overcome multi-path interference as shown in many past studies. It is recognized empirically that the large number of multi-path arrival could generally raise the demodulation result of TR. However, its relationship is rarely evaluated quantitatively. In this paper, we investigate the efficiency of the TR acoustic communication techniques for the multi-path interference cancelation by applying our passive TR method to the synthetic datasets of horizontal acoustic communication in shallow water environment. Mainly, we focused on the relation between the Signal to Interference Noise Ratio (SINR) and the output SNR of demodulation result. The result shows: 1) SINR and output SNR has a nearly linear relation up to a limitation, and 2) above the limitation, output SNR reaches its ceiling or slightly decreases.