Potential performance of parametric communications

Abstract

From a designer viewpoint, a parametric array should not appear different from any other type of acoustic transducer and should be described by a limited set of design equations together with their range of validity. In this paper, these design equations are stated and discussed. They are used to optimize the acoustic parameters of an underwater communication system using parametric transduction and to evaluate its performance in terms of signal-to-noise ratio and data-rate limits as a function of transmission range. It turns out that, for a maximum data transmission rate at a given range, there is a set of optimum design parameters which is a function of the array size only. This means that, once given an operational range, the primary frequency, the electrical power, the maximum acoustic source level, and the directionality of the transducer can be deduced directly from the array diameter.