Underwater Acoustic Communication System Research Articles

Image Super Resolution-Based Channel Estimation for Orthogonal Chirp Division Multiplexing on Shallow Water Underwater Acoustic Communications.

Orthogonal chirp division multiplexing (OCDM) offers a promising modulation technology for shallow water underwater acoustic (UWA) communication systems due to multipath fading resistance and Doppler resistance. To handle the various channel distortions and interferences, obtaining accurate channel state information is vital for robust and efficient shallow water UWA communication. In recent years, deep learning has attracted widespread attention in the communication field, providing a new way to improve the performance of physical layer communication systems. In this paper, the pilot-based channel estimation is transformed into a matrix completion problem, which is mathematically equivalent to the image super-resolution problem arising in the field of image processing. Simulation results show that the deep learning-based method can improve the channel distortion, outperforming the equalization performed by traditional estimator, the performance of Bit Error Rate is improved by 2.5 dB compared to the MMSE method in OCDM system. At the 7.5 to 20 dB region, it achieves better bit error rate performance than OFDM systems, and the bit error rate is reduced by approximately 53% compared to OFDM when the SNR value is 20, which is very useful in shallow water UWA channels with multipath extension and severe time-varying characteristics.

Performance of the Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum Underwater Acoustic Communication System with Differential Detection in Strong Multipath Propagation Conditions

The underwater acoustic communication (UAC) operating in very shallow-water should ensure reliable transmission in conditions of strong multipath propagation, significantly disturbing the received signal. One of the techniques to achieve this goal is the direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) technique, which consists in binary phase shift keying (BPSK) according to a pseudo-random spreading sequence. This paper describes the DSSS data transmission tests in the simulation and experimental environment, using different types of pseudo-noise sequences: m-sequences and Kasami codes of the order 6 and 8. The transmitted signals are of different bandwidth and the detection at the receiver side was performed using two detection methods: non-differential and differential. The performed experiments allowed to draw important conclusions for the designing of a physical layer of the shallow-water UAC system. Both, m-sequences and Kasami codes allow to achieve a similar bit error rate, which at best was less than 10 −3. At the same time, the 6th order sequences are not long enough to achieve an acceptable BER under strong multipath conditions. In the case of transmission of wideband signals the differential detection algorithm allows to achieve a significantly better BER (less than 10 −2) than nondifferential one (BER not less than 10 −1). In the case of narrowband signals the simulation tests have shown that the non-differential algorithm gives a better BER, but experimental tests under conditions of strong multipath propagation did not confirm it. The differential algorithm allowed to achieve a BER less than 10 −2 in experimental tests, while the second algorithm allowed to obtain, at best, a BER less than 10 −1. In addition, two indicators have been proposed for a rough assessment which of the detection algorithms under current propagation conditions in the channel will allow to obtain a better BER.

Doppler and Channel Estimation Using Superimposed Linear Frequency Modulation Preamble Signal for Underwater Acoustic Communication

Due to the relative motion between transmitters and receivers and the multipath characteristic of wideband underwater acoustic channels, Doppler and channel estimations are of great significance for an underwater acoustic (UWA) communication system. In this paper, a preamble signal based on superimposed linear frequency modulation (LFM) signals is first designed. Based on the designed preamble signal, a real-time Doppler factor estimation algorithm is proposed. The relative correlation peak shift of two LFM signals in the designed preamble signal is utilized to estimate the Doppler factor. Moreover, an enhanced channel estimation algorithm, the correlation-peak-search-based improved orthogonal matching pursuit (CPS-IOMP) algorithm, is also proposed. In the CPS-IOMP algorithm, the excellent autocorrelation characteristic of the designed preamble signal is used to estimate the channel sparsity and multipath delays, which are utilized to construct the simplified dictionary matrix. The simulation and sea trial data analysis results validated the designed preamble, the proposed Doppler estimation algorithm, and the channel estimation algorithm. The performance of the proposed Doppler factor estimation is better than that of the block estimation algorithm. Compared with the original OMP algorithm with known channel sparsity, the proposed CPS-IOMP algorithm achieves a similar estimation accuracy with a smaller computational complexity, as well as requiring no prior knowledge about the channel sparsity.

ОРГАНИЗАЦИЯ ПОДВОДНОЙ БЕСПРОВОДНОЙ СИСТЕМЫ СВЯЗИ

The article discusses underwater wireless communication systems. Research in the field of underwater optical wireless communication system will allow developing science, industry, to find solutions to defense tasks and emergencies, to carry out remote monitoring of environmental pollution of the underwater world and control underwater objects and equipment of oilrigs, to conduct underwater research and much more. The purpose of the work is to develop a classification of the principles of construction and organization of underwater wireless communication, taking into account modern achievements and development of technologies in the field of underwater wireless communication systems, to assess the strengths and weaknesses of underwater acoustic, radio frequency and optical communication systems. It is shown that the underwater optical wireless communication system has a great potential to enhance the traditional underwater acoustic communication system and underwater radio frequency communication system due to the high speed of information transmission, low latency, lower power consumption and compact size. To select the equipment and organize the communication channel, a generalized classification of an underwater optical wireless communication system has been developed, depending on the routing protocols used, on the configuration of the communication channel, on the optical properties of water, on the type of water in which the transmission channel is organized, on the mobility of underwater vehicles and the coverage area, on the type of modulation used, the method of underwater communication and from the factors affecting the organization of the communication channel.

Spatial diversity processing mechanism based on the distributed underwater acoustic communication system.

To address the problem of unreliable single-link underwater acoustic communication caused by large signal delays and strong multipath effects in shallow water environments, this paper proposes a distributed underwater acoustic diversity communication system (DUA-DCS). DUA-DCS employs a maneuverable distributed cross-medium buoy network to form multiple distributed, non-coherent, and parallel communication links. In the uplink, a receiving diversity processing mechanism of joint decision feedback equalizer embedded phase-locked loop and maximum signal-to-interference ratio combining (DFE-PLL-MSIRC) is proposed to achieve waveform-level diversity combining of underwater signals. A phase-locked loop module is embedded in each branch of the decision feedback equalizer to eliminate the residual frequency and phase errors after Doppler compensation. Meanwhile, the combining coefficients are determined based on the maximum signal-to-interference ratio criterion, taking into account the residual inter-symbol interference after equalization, resulting in efficient and accurate computation. Additionally, the combined decision values are fed back to the feedback filters in each branch to ensure more accurate feedback output. Simulation and lake experiment results demonstrate that, compared to the single-link communication system, DFE-PLL-MSIRC can achieve a diversity gain of more than 5.2 dB and obtain about 3 dB more diversity gain than the comparison algorithm. And the BER of DFE-PLL-MSIRC can be reduced by at least one order of magnitude, which is lower by at least 0.6 order of magnitude compared to the comparison algorithm. In the downlink, a transmitting diversity processing mechanism of complex orthogonal space-time block coding (COSTBC) is proposed. By utilizing a newly designed generalized complex orthogonal transmission matrix, complete transmission diversity can be achieved at the coding rate of 3/4. Compared to the single-link communication system, the system can achieve a diversity gain of more than 6 dB.

One2ThreeNet: An automatic microscale-based modulation recognition method for underwater acoustic communication systems

One2ThreeNet: An automatic microscale-based modulation recognition method for underwater acoustic communication systems

Retracted: Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Underwater Acoustic Communication System with Environmental Cognition Ability

Retracted: Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Underwater Acoustic Communication System with Environmental Cognition Ability

Performance Analysis of a WPCN-Based Underwater Acoustic Communication System

Underwater acoustic communication (UWAC) has a wide range of applications, including marine environment monitoring, disaster warning, seabed terrain exploration, and oil extraction. It plays an indispensable and increasingly important role in marine resource exploration and marine economic development. In current UWAC systems, the terminal nodes are usually powered by energy-limited batteries. Due to the harshness of the underwater environment, especially in the ocean environment, it is very costly and difficult, even impossible, to replace the batteries for the terminal nodes in UWACs, which results in the short lifetime and unreliability of the terminal nodes and the systems. In this paper, we present the application of a wireless powered communication network (WPCN) to the UWAC systems to provide an auxiliary and convenient energy supplement for solving the energy-limited problem of the terminal nodes, where the hybrid access point (H-AP) transfers energy to the terminal nodes in the downlink. In contrast, the terminal nodes use the harvested energy to transmit the information to the H-AP in the uplink. To evaluate the proposed WPCN-based UWAC systems, we investigate the performance of the average bit error rate (BER), outage probability, and achievable information rate for the systems in a frequency-selective sparse channel and non-white noise environment. We derive the closed-form expression for the probability density function (PDF) of the received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Based on this, we further derive novel closed-form expressions for the average BER and the outage probability of the systems. Numerical results confirm the validity of the proposed analytical results. It is shown that there exists an optimal signal frequency and time allocation factor for the systems to achieve optimal performance, and a larger optimal time allocation factor is preferred for a smaller hybrid access point (H-AP) transmit power or a larger transmission distance, while a smaller optimal signal frequency is required for a larger transmission distance.

Analysis and Improvement of Channel Equalization for Underwater Acoustic Communication Based on Variational Mode Decomposition and CNN-BiLSTM

Neural networks, including conventional neural networks (CNNs) and long- and short-term memory (LSTM) networks, have gained considerable attention in recent years due to their remarkable ability to recognize signals, which make them an ideal option for communication applications in aquatic environments. Despite the promising results achieved through the integration of various algorithms and CNN-LSTM networks, the utilization of these networks necessitates a significant amount of data for training which results in increased complexity of recognition systems. Therefore, it is crucial to explore new solutions that can mitigate these issues while also enhancing the overall performance of underwater acoustic communication systems. Therefore, this paper proposes a VCB framework that integrates the variational modal decomposition (VMD) algorithm, CNN and Bidirectional LSTM (BiLSTM) networks. This framework employs the VMD algorithm to extract energy characteristics from signals that are modulated by filter bank multi-carrier (FBMC) technologies. One-dimensional convolution (Conv1D) is then employed to extract the abstract features, which are subsequently fed into LSTM for time correlation analysis, from the energy values at each time step. Experimental results indicate that the neural network framework utilized in this study significantly diminishes data volume and enhances the recognition rate of FBMC signals, resulting in a lower bit error rate (BER).

Advances and Trends in Channel Codes for Underwater Acoustic Communications

Due to the simultaneous existence of severe difficulties caused by multi-path, Doppler, and environmental noise caused by underwater acoustic channels, designing a stable and reliable underwater acoustic communication system (UWACS) is a challenging task. In addition to channel estimation and equalization, the technique of channel codes, which is capable of approaching Shannon’s capacity at a low encoding and decoding complexity, offers an efficient and reliable solution to improve the performance of the UWACS and thus draws extensive attention from the research community. By seeking a balance between communication efficiency and channel tolerance via multiple coding rate tuning, it has been recognized that the rate-compatible codes can achieve smooth rate-adaptive transmission under highly diverse underwater acoustic channel states. While there has been a substantial number of investigations on rate-compatible channel codes for the UWACS, in this paper, the research of rate-compatible channel codes has been summarized, reviewed, and compared, mainly focusing on the low-density parity-check (LDPC) and polar codes, which render flexibility in terms of code length and rate. Furthermore, typical research was evaluated and compared from the practical viewpoint of performance under real noise in a shallow water environment. Finally, problems encountered by the LDPC and polar codes for the UWACS were highlighted, and several future research issues were discussed.

The "4Rs" Teaching Method in Underwater Acoustic Communication Systems Course

According to the training goal of underwater acoustic engineering in Information Engineering University, we find the characteristics of underwater acoustic communication systems, summarize the experience during the years of teaching students practice, and then propose the teaching method of "underwater acoustic communication system" course, which is summarized as "4Rs". This paper firstly describes the meanings of "4Rs", which is suitable for our students. Then, we show the teaching contents and what the students can learn. And finally, we tell the implementation ideas of 4Rs teaching method, and through the consecutive practical teaching training, we can have many favorable teaching results.

Experimental application of heterogeneous gliders communication system in South China Sea

This study presents an underwater acoustic communication system based on heterogeneous gliders. The system consists of an underwater unit integrated into an underwater glider and a surface unit integrated into a surface wave glider. This setup enables real-time information exchange across different media. This study details the adaptive integration method and information exchange protocol of the underwater acoustic communication system implemented on the heterogeneous glider. To validate the feasibility of this integration, sea trials are conducted in the South China Sea. Additionally, the communication performance of the heterogeneous glider integrated with the underwater acoustic communication system is analyzed thoroughly. This allows for information communication between underwater, surface, space-based, and shore-based components. The results of this study lay a strong foundation for the development cooperative network intelligent monitoring of heterogeneous gliders.

Further results on maximal ratio combining under correlated noise for multi-carrier underwater acoustic communication using vector sensors

In the isotropic marine ambient noise field, the pressure and particle velocity signal processing based on the maximal ratio combining (MRC) algorithm can effectively improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the underwater acoustic (UWA) communication using acoustic vector sensors (VS). However, the assumption of isotropic ambient noise is not always valid, especially when combined with VS manufacturing errors, which increase the correlation between pressure and velocity branches for the noise and reduce MRC performance. Therefore, a correlation coefficient weighted MRC (CCW-MRC) method is proposed to achieve the optimal combination under correlated noise. And we derive the optimal weighting factors and apply the CCW-MRC method to the multi-carrier M-ary Frequency Shift Keying (MFSK) based UWA communication system with the single acoustic VS. Simulation and the field trial results demonstrate that the proposed CCW-MRC method can improve the received SNR by 2-3 dB compared with the traditional MRC in the multicarrier MFSK based UWA communication system using the single acoustic VS.

Joint channel and Doppler shift estimation for underwater acoustic single carrier system

Underwater acoustic channel is a time-varying, strong multipath channel. Due to the low velocity of sound (about 1500 m/s), Doppler shift, occurred by the relative motion between transmitter and receiver, restricts the performance of communication. In order to transmit data in underwater acoustic single carrier communication system with strong stability and high reliability, especially in high mobility scenarios, a joint channel and Doppler shift estimation method is proposed in this paper. We propose a novel data frame structure based on a Gold sequence, so the channel and Doppler shift can be estimated. For different underwater scenarios, we design Gold sequence templates with different Doppler factors. When the Gold sequence from the received data frame is extracted, with good correlation characteristics of the Gold sequence, the maximum correlation value can be calculated, and the Doppler shift corresponding to the maximum is the estimation of Doppler shift. Then Doppler shift will be compensated by resampling the communication data. For channel estimation, the Gold sequence is also used to estimate the time-domain channel impulse response (CIR). Simulation results show that the proposed method can effectively estimate channel and Doppler shift in an environment with multipath and Doppler.

Feature extraction and classification of deep-sea mobile underwater acoustic channels

The reliable acoustic path (RAP) is one of the crucial channels for deep-sea sound propagation, which is affected weakly by the interface and has lower transmission loss, enabling long-distance communication. However, RAP-based deep-sea acoustic communication may face channel model mismatch issues. In order to analyze the dynamic characteristics of spatial-temporalvariability channels, deep-sea mobile underwater acoustic channel measurement experiments were conducted. This work proposes a deep learning method based on multi-dimensional properties to classify deep-sea channels. Specifically, the sound ray convergence zone leads to a complex multipath structure and severe delay spread in the RAP channel. The fuzzy c-means (FCM) algorithm is used for multipath clustering to extract accurate channel features, and then the Markov chain (MC) is introduced to track the evolution characteristics of multipath clusters. Finally, the coupling features of channel time-variant impulse response (TVIR) and multi-dimensionalstatistical properties are used as the input of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to obtain the quantitative evaluation index as the channel classification to build a channel feature dataset for underwater mobile platforms. This dataset can effectively assist in identifying deep-sea mobile channels and promote the development of adaptive underwater acoustic communication systems on mobile platforms.

Underwater Biomimetic Covert Acoustic Communications Mimicking Multiple Dolphin Whistles

This paper presents an underwater biomimetic covert acoustic communication system that achieves high covertness and a high data rate by mimicking dolphin group whistles. The proposed method uses combined time–frequency shift keying modulation with continuous varying carrier frequency modulation, which mitigates the interference between two overlapping multiple whistles while maintaining a high data rate. The data rate and bit error rate (BER) performance of the proposed method were compared with conventional underwater covert communication through an additive white Gaussian noise channel, a modeled underwater channel, and practical ocean experiments. For the covertness test, the similarity of the proposed multiple whistles was compared with the real dolphin group whistles using the mean opinion score test. As a result, the proposed method demonstrated a higher data rate, better BER performance, and large covertness to the real dolphin group whistles.

A prefix‐based approach for joint Doppler and channel estimation in underwater communication

SummaryDeveloping a reliable and robust underwater acoustic communication system is a difficult task due to the complicated nature of the underwater channel, non‐stationary noise, and several other factors. Indeed, channel estimation or equalization presents numerous challenges in this non‐stationary, highly Doppler, multipath environment; as a result, traditional equalizers and PLL‐based methods have limited performance. Generally, communication over such time‐varying channels is accomplished via packets that contain a prefix/preamble signal for training, a payload containing the actual data, and a silent period for proper alignment. The prefix signal must be designed properly because it is used to estimate the channel and determine the start of the packet. In this paper, we propose a new prefix signal based on the hyperbolic chirp signal, which has Doppler invariance properties. These properties enable the extraction of the entire packet even under severe multipath and Doppler. Our new proposed prefix signal can accurately and efficiently characterize an underwater channel by estimating the multipath delay, amplitude, and Doppler scales. Our new method has been validated through extensive simulations using various channel models for its robustness and effectiveness under various conditions. It has also been tested on a real‐world channel.

Proposal for a Doppler Shift Compensation Method Using Non-Uniform FFT with Pilot Carrier Frequency for OFDM-Based Underwater Acoustic Communication Systems

In this paper, we propose a method that uses the non-uniform Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) to compensate for Doppler frequency shifts in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) based underwater acoustic (UWA) communication systems. To estimate the Doppler frequency shift, the paper proposes using a pilot carrier frequency (PCF) that is identified by transmitting with greater power in the frequency domain compared to other subcarriers. This identifier helps estimate both the Doppler frequency shift and the channel. The paper proposes estimating and compensating for the Doppler frequency shift in two steps: Step 1 performs coarse frequency synchronization, where the Doppler frequency shift is determined by using PCF signal. The Doppler shift correction is obtained by re-sampling the received signal, and then interpolating re-sampled signal. However, the Doppler shift compensation in the step 1 cannot correct the phase distortion of the measured PCF signal. Therefore, performing step 2, known as fine frequency synchronization, is necessary. In this step, the correction for the phase distortion is determined based on the phase difference between the two consecutive OFDM signals in one frame. The remaining Doppler frequency shift is adjusted based on the phase deviation, using the non-uniform FFT. By using the non-uniform FFT, the complexity of the ICI compensation is significantly reduced, and the quality of Doppler shift compensation is improved. The experience results show that the transmitted text will be decoded correctly by using the proposed technique

Short-Block-Length Low-Density Parity-Check Codes-Based Underwater Acoustic Spread-Spectrum Communication System

Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes are commonly used in communication systems to improve the system performance, but LDPC codes takes too long for decoding, making communication inefficient and unsuitable for short-frame data transmission methods. In underwater acoustic channels, spread-spectrum communication becomes an effective way to realize long-distance communication. This paper combines short-block LDPC codes with a direct sequence spread spectrum and soft spread spectrum in underwater acoustic communication, addressing the problem of the inapplicability of conventional LDPC codes. The applicability of the proposed method in this paper is verified through simulation tests and pool experiments. The results indicate that the proposed communication system achieves lower bit error rates compared to the classical coding methods used in underwater acoustic spread-spectrum communication systems under the same channel conditions.

Analytical Technique Leveraging Processing Gain for Evaluating the Anti-Jamming Potential of Underwater Acoustic Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum Communication Systems

This study proposes an analytical technique underpinned by processing gain to evaluate the anti-jamming potential of an underwater acoustic direct-sequence spread-spectrum (DSSS) communication system that employs a short-period pseudo-noise (PN) sequence. The processing gain comes from the symmetry of the coding, which provides a mechanism for separating desired signals from unwanted ones, and the apparent randomness of the coding, which suppresses interference and noise in the system. The robustness of such a system against wideband interference, partial-band jamming, and single-frequency interference is emulated. Outcomes suggest that, in comparison to a standard binary phase shift keying (BPSK) system, the DSSS system’s ability to resist wideband interference is limited, with only a marginal increase in immunity performance of approximately 0.5 dB. Contrarily, it suppresses partial-band jamming effectively, with the suppression level dependent on the interference bandwidth and its relative position concerning the signal carrier frequency. The influence of single-frequency interference on system performance depends similarly on its relative location relative to the signal carrier frequency. In all situations where the interference frequency offset is an integer multiple of the bit bandwidth, the system exhibits the worst performance when the frequency offset equals the bit bandwidth. Upon comparing resistance levels to identical power interferences targeted at the signal carrier frequency, our system demonstrates optimal resilience to single-frequency interference. In concordance with the empirical findings, the simulated results substantiate both the effectiveness and practicability of the proposed analytical method based on processing gain. Subsequently, this study contributes a novel perspective for evaluating the anti-jamming potential of DSSS systems.