Underwater image transmission performance in multi‐path flat fading channel.

Abstract

Time‐variant sea surface scattering, Doppler spreading due to source/receiver motion, and grazing angle dependent bottom reflection in the multi‐path underwater acoustic channel cause the signal fading in amplitude and phase fluctuation. Consequently, the performance of underwater acoustic communication systems is degraded, and high‐speed digital communication is disrupted. In this study, two different multi‐path channels such as a water tank and a river are considered and the experiments are conducted under flat fading condition. Rayleigh and Rice fading channel models are adopted and their distributions are compared with the measured in experiments. Finally, the standard Lenna image using binary frequency shift keying modulation is transmitted and the quality of the received image is analyzed based on the channel models. It is shown that the quality of the received image and the channel model is consistent with each other.