Recent advances in high-speed underwater acoustic communications

In recent years, underwater acoustic (UWA) communications have received much attention as their applications have begun to shift from military toward commercial. Digital communications through UWA channels differ substantially from those in other media, such as radio channels, due to severe signal degradations caused by multipath propagation and high temporal and spatial variability of the channel conditions. The design of underwater acoustic communication systems has until recently relied on the use of noncoherent modulation techniques. However, to achieve high data rates on the severely band-limited UWA channels, bandwidth-efficient modulation techniques must be considered, together with array processing for exploitation of spatial multipath diversity. The new generation of underwater communication systems, employing phase-coherent modulation techniques, has a potential of achieving at least an order of magnitude increase in data throughput. The emerging communication scenario in which the modern underwater acoustic systems mill operate is that of an underwater network consisting of stationary and mobile nodes. Current research focuses on the development of efficient signal processing algorithms, multiuser communications in the presence of interference, and design of efficient modulation and coding schemes. This paper presents a review of recent results and research problems in high-speed underwater acoustic communications, focusing on the bandwidth-efficient phase-coherent methods. Experimental results are included to illustrate the state-of-the-art coherent detection of digital signals transmitted at 30 and 40 kb/s through a rapidly varying one-mile shallow water channel     

Spatial diversity equalization applied to underwater communications

Underwater acoustic digital communication is difficult because of the nature of the fading multipath channels. Digital signal processing, such as adaptive equalization, is known to greatly improve the communication data rate by limiting intersymbol interference (ISI). However, existing underwater acoustic equalization studies are limited to single-channel techniques, and spatial diversity processing is limited to selection or combining. In this paper, we design minimum mean-square error (MMSE) equalizers jointly among all spatial diversity channels. We call this spatial diversity equalization (SDE). Results are based on a very sparse vertical array in a midrange underwater acoustic channel. We study the effect of element number and placement, the length of the equalization filters, and linear feedforward versus nonlinear decision feedback algorithms. A suboptimum equalizer combiner (EC) is studied to alleviate the computational intensity of JCE. We first design the system for a known acoustic channel; later, some results are verified using adaptive algorithms. Results are presented both in terms of the mean-square error (MSE) and the probability of a symbol error. The latter is important as it is the ultimate interest for a digital communication system. We found that system performance improves rapidly with an increase in the number of spatial channels     

水声数据通信系统研究

提出一种基于并行传输体制的水声数据通信系统设计方案,发射端采用纠错能力很强的级联码和MFSK调制,分集技术采用抑制载波的双边带调制方式,接收端对接收信号利用快速频谱分析进行解调,并进行硬判决Viterbi译码和BM迭代译码。实验表明,该水声数据通信系统的传输波特率为200bits/s。误码率达到10^-5～10^-6以下。     

水声信道中一种抗多途跳频通信的研究

水声通道系统是当代海洋开发和海洋环境立体监测中的重要技术组成部分，广泛应用于海洋监测、海洋资源勘探和开发等方面。然而，水声信道的随机起伏、时－空－频变的多途特征使水声通信技术成为当代最为复杂的通信技术之一。本文介绍近年来在高速水声通信方面的一些研究进展，讨论了一种利用高速数字信号处理器（DSP）实现水声信道跳频通信的方案，并探讨了该方案在调制信号设计及信号处理实现上所采用的关键技术。     

MIMO Underwater Acoustic Communication in Shallow Water with Ice Cover

Although multiple-input multiple-output(MIMO) underwater acoustic(UWA) communication has been intensively investigated in the past years, existing works mainly focus on open-water environment. There is no work reporting MIMO acoustic communication in under-ice environment. This paper presents results from a recent MIMO acoustic communication experiment which was conducted in Bohai Gulf during winter. In this experiment, high frequency MIMO signals centered at 10 kHz were transmitted from a two-element source array to a four-element vertical receiving array at 1 km range. According to the received signal of different array elements, MIMO acoustic communication in under-ice environment suffers less effect from co-channel interference compared with that in open-water environment. In this paper, time reversal followed by a single channel decision feedback equalizer is used to process the experimental data. It is demonstrated that this simple receiver is capable of realizing robust performance using fewer hydrophones(i.e. 2) without the explicit use of complex co-channel interference cancelation algorithms, such as parallel interference cancelation or serial interference cancelation.     

High-frequency forward scattering from the sea surface: thecharacteristic scales of time and angle spreading

Forward scattering from the sea surface is discussed in the contest of a forward bounce path, or channel, through which high-frequency sound energy is transmitted. Such a channel might be used in an underwater communication or imaging task. Both time and angle spreading are inherent to the process of forward scattering by a roughened sea surface. Spreading in each domain relates, via Fourier transform, to a conjugate or coherence separation variable, e.g., angle spreading and spatial coherence. The measurement and modeling of time and angle spreading are discussed, with the modeling incorporating the bistatic cross section of the sea surface. A characteristic scale for each spread variable is defined: L for the time spread and σ_&thetas;h and σ_&thetas;v for the horizontal and vertical angular spread, respectively. Simplified expressions for these characteristic scales as a function of array acquisition geometry and sea surface conditions are also obtained. Data from two field experiments are discussed, one conducted in shallow waters of 30-m depth, and one conducted in deep, pelagic waters of 4000-m depth. Both experiments utilized frequencies ⩾20 kHz. The role of bubbles in forward scattering is illustrated using measurements from the deep-water experiment. It was demonstrated that bubbles can attenuate the forward-scattered signal, but otherwise have little effect on L and σ_&thetas;h,v until their concentrations approach those necessary to nearly extinguish the signal scattered from the air/sea interface     

双通道实时数据采集处理系统的设计与实现

本文提出了一种基于 TMS32 0 C31串行接口的双通道实时数据采集处理系统的设计与实现方案 ,该设计以 TMS32 0 C31和 TL C32 0 AD5 0 C为核心器件 ,具有两个独立的 A/D,D/A通道 ,能够实现 32位浮点计算和 16位数据采集与回放。应用该系统进行归一化最小均方误差 (Normal-ized L east Mean Square,NLMS)算法实时自适应噪声抵消实验 ,实验结果表明 ,该系统能够实现实时的自适应噪声抵消 ,可广泛应用于实时语音信号处理等领域。     

A Variable-Rate Spread-Spectrum System for Underwater Acoustic Communications

A key research area in underwater acoustic (UWA) communication is the development of advanced modulation and detection schemes for improved performance and range-rate product. In this communication, we propose a variable-rate underwater data transmission system based on direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) and complementary code keying (CCK), particularly for shallow-water acoustic channels with severe multipath propagation. We provide a suboptimum receiver that consists of a bidirectional decision feedback equalizer (BiDFE) to cancel both postcursor and precursor intersymbol interference (ISI). We also develop iterative signal processing and time-reversal (TR) diversity processing to mitigate the effect of error propagation in BiDFE. We present performance analysis on bit error rate (BER) for different data rates. Our works show that this new variable-data-rate DSSS-CCK is a suitable candidate for UWA communications over varying channel conditions and distance.      

MFSK水声通信接收系统中的幅度均衡设计

为了抗幅度随频率的衰减，提出了一种基于多频移频健控（MFSK）调制方式的水声通信接收系统中的幅度均衡技术，介绍了构成幅度均衡电路的基本原理以及在厦门港浅海域中的实验结果，实验结果表明，该技术能有效克服上系统中的信号民幅度随率的衰减问题。使接收到的图像清晰易读。     

Shipborne Underwater Acoustic Communication System and Sea Trials with Submersible Shenhai Yongshi

The Shipborne acoustic communication system of the submersible Shenhai Yongshi works in vertical, horizontal and slant channels according to the relative positions. For ease of use, an array combined by a vertical-cone directional transducer and a horizontal-toroid one is installed on the mothership. Improved techniques are proposed to combat adverse channel conditions, such as frequency selectivity, non-stationary ship noise, and Doppler effects of the platform’s nonlinear movement. For coherent modulation, a turbo-coded single-carrier scheme is used. In the receiver, the sparse decision-directed Normalized Least-Mean-Square soft equalizer automatically adjusts the tap pattern and weights according to the multipath structure, the two receivers’ asymmetry, the signal’s frequency selectivity and the noise’s spectrum fluctuation. The use of turbo code in turbo equalization significantly suppresses the error floor and decreases the equalizer’s iteration times, which is verified by both the extrinsic information transfer charts and bit-error-rate performance. For noncoherent modulation, a concatenated error correction scheme of nonbinary convolutional code and Hadamard code is adopted to utilize full frequency diversity. Robust and low-complexity synchronization techniques in the time and Doppler domains are proposed. Sea trials with the submersible to a maximum depth of over 4500 m show that the shipborne communication system performs robustly during the adverse conditions. From the ten-thousand communication records in the 28 dives in 2017, the failure rate of the coherent frames and that of the noncoherent packets are both below 10%, where both synchronization errors and decoding errors are taken into account.     

Estimation of Rapidly Time-Varying Sparse Channels

The estimation of sparse shallow-water acoustic communication channels and the impact of estimation performance on the equalization of phase coherent communication signals are investigated. Given sufficiently wide transmission bandwidth, the impulse response of the shallow-water acoustic channel is often sparse as the multipath arrivals become resolvable. In the presence of significant surface waves, the multipath arrivals associated with surface scattering fluctuate rapidly over time, in the sense that the complex gain, the arrival time, and the Dopplers of each arrival all change dynamically. A sparse channel estimation technique is developed based on the delay-Doppler-spread function representation of the channel. The delay-Doppler-spread function may be considered as a first-order approximation to the rapidly time-varying channel in which each channel component is associated with Doppler shifts that are assumed constant over an averaging interval. The sparse structure of the delay-Doppler-spread function is then exploited by sequentially choosing the dominant components that minimize a least squares error. The advantage of this approach is that it captures both the channel structure as well as its dynamics without the need of explicit dynamic channel modeling. As the symbols are populated with the sample Dopplers, the increase in complexity depends on the channel Doppler spread and can be significant for a severely Doppler-spread channel. Comparison is made between nonsparse recursive least squares (RLS) channel estimation, sparse channel impulse response estimation, and estimation using the proposed approach. The results are demonstrated using experimental data. In training mode, the proposed approach shows a 3-dB reduction in signal prediction error. In decision-directed mode, it improves significantly the robustness of the performance of the channel-estimate-based equalizer against rapid channel fluctuations.     

多模式自适应水下无线通信网络框架研究

对当前典型的水下无线通信网进行分析,针对水声、光、射频3种通信模式在水下无线通信中的优缺点,提出基于软件无线电技术的多模式自适应水下无线通信网络的概念及其框架结构,并对其中的自适应调制解调方式展开研究.结合MAC层协议,提出一种跨层的自适应调制解调解决方案,即通过收发双方的握手信息携带当前信道状态,由发射方根据握手信息,判断双方通信距离,预计信道未来状态,结合需要传输的数据量,自适应选择合适的通信模式和调制方式,并利用握手信号通知接收方,从而实现在通信网络范围内数据或指令的快速可靠传输.     

A low sidelobe technique for the direct measurement of scatteringfunctions

Effective communication and echolocation depends strongly upon the coherence of the channel through which the signal is propagated. Under certain conditions, the average coherence or equivalently, the spreading of a random channel may be described by a scattering function (SF). This represents a second order (energy) measure of the average delay, Doppler, and more generally, the spatial (azimuthal) spread that the signal experiences. The SF is analogous to the point spread function (PSF) discussed in the image processing literature and likewise describes the amount of “blurring” imposed upon the signal or scene transmitted. The SF will be briefly reviewed and its measurement by both direct (high resolution channel probing) and indirect (deconvolution) methods will be discussed. A new direct method using specially designed waveform pairs and a twin or uncertainty product (UP) receiver structure is introduced. Unlike high resolution matched filter implementations for direct probing that are limited by the fixed volume constraint of ambiguity functions, the UP receiver produces vanishing sidelobes and hence more nearly approximates a desirable two-dimensional delta characteristic. The improvement gained in SF measurement is illustrated by the results of an experiment in which the UP receiver and traditional matched filter implementations were used to directly probe an ocean multipath channel     

基于Visual C和PC的软件水声调制解调系统

介绍了一种DS/DBPSK调制解调技术方案,该方案采用了具有较强抗干扰、抗衰落和抗多径性能的扩频技术,并结合与信道适应性较好、不需载波恢复的差分相位调制技术,对浅海水声信道造成的干扰进行抑制.在此方法上,基于Visual C(VC)及PC平台设计了一个通用性好的软件水声调制解调系统,利用双缓冲邋和多线程技术机制实现算法实时处理,同时可通过串口通信提供上层应用接口.实验系统验证了扩频和差分调制技术在浅海水声通信中的性能,为水声组网提供了底层支持.海试实验结果表明了系统的有效性.     

Methods to Improve the Long Distance Time-Varying Channel Transmission Performance of Expendable Profiler

To improve the transmission performance of XCTD channel, this paper proposes a method to measure directly and fit the channel transmission characteristics by using frequency sweeping method. Sinusoidal signals with a frequency range of 100 Hz to 10 k Hz and an interval of 100 Hz are used to measure transmission characteristics of channels with lengths of 300 m, 800 m, 1300 m, and 1800 m. The correctness of the fitted channel characteristics by transmitting square wave, composite waves of different frequencies, and ASK modulation are verified. The results show that when the frequency of the signal is below 1500 Hz, the channel has very little effect on the signal. The signal compensated for amplitude and phase at the receiver is not as good as the uncompensated signal.Alternatively, when the signal frequency is above 1500 Hz, the channel distorts the signal. The quality of signal compensated for amplitude and phase at receiver is better than that of the uncompensated signal. Thus, we can select the appropriate frequency for XCTD system and the appropriate way to process the received signals. Signals below1500 Hz can be directly used at the receiving end. Signals above 1500 Hz are used after amplitude and phase compensation at the receiving end.     

Multichannel processing of broad-band multiuser communicationsignals in shallow water acoustic channels

High-throughout multiple-access communication networks are being considered for use in underwater acoustic channels. Bandwidth limitations of underwater acoustic channels require receivers to process broad-band communications signals in the presence of several active users. To deal with the resulting multiple-access interference in addition to high intersymbol interference, the spatial variability of ocean multipath is exploited in a multichannel multiuser receiver. Two configurations of such a receiver, a centralized and a decentralized one, are presented in fully adaptive modes of operations. While greatly reducing intersymbol and multiple-access interference, spatial diversity implies high increase in adaptive multiuser receiver complexity. To reduce the complexity of the optimal multichannel combiner, spatial structure of multipath is exploited. The complexity of resulting adaptive decentralized multichannel multiuser receiver is reduced at almost no cost in performance. Comparison of proposed multichannel receivers in an experimental shallow water channel demonstrates superior performance of spatial signal combining. The use of multiple input channels is shown to provide high level of tolerance for the near-far effect in both centralized and decentralized receivers. Decentralized receiver with reduced-complexity combining is found to satisfy the performance/complexity trade-off required for practical receiver realization in shallow water networks     

Digital underwater acoustic voice communications

This paper describes the design of an underwater acoustic diver communication system controlled by a digital signal processor. The speech signal transmission rate is compressed by using linear predictive coding (LPC) and the extracted parameters are transmitted through the water to a synchronized receiver by employing digital pulse position modulation (DPPM). The pulse position in each time frame is estimated by an energy detection and decision algorithm which enables the received LPC parameters to be recovered and used to synthesize the speech signal     

Performance Enhancement of Multiuser Passive Time Reversal Communication Based on Space-Time Block Coding

Reliable,with high data rate,acoustic communication in time-varying,multipath shallow water environment is a hot research topic recently.Passive time reversal communication has shown promising results in improvement of the system performance.In multiuser environment,the system performance is significantly degraded due to the interference among different users.Passive time reversal can reduce such interference by minimizing the cross-correlated version of channel impulse response among users,which can be realized by the well-separated users in depth.But this method also has its shortcomings,even with the absence of relative motion,the minimization sometimes may be impossible because of the time-varying environment.Therefore in order to avoid the limitation of minimizing the cross-correlated channel function,an approach of passive time reversal based on space-time block coding (STBC) is presented in this paper.In addition,a single channel equalizer is used as a post processing technique to reduce the residual symbol interference.Experimental results at 13 kHz with 2 kHz bandwidth demonstrate that this method has better performance to decrease bit error rate and improve signal to noise ratio,compared with passive time reversal alone or passive time reversal combined with equalization.     

A Custom Chip Set for a Frequency-Agile High-Resolution Sonar Array

This paper describes two custom-integrated circuits, which form the core building blocks of a versatile wideband sonar array. An analog 0.5-mum complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) chip houses a preamplifier, an antialias filter, and a high-resolution (14-16 b) data converter based on delta-sigma modulation techniques. A complementary 0.35-mum digital CMOS chip incorporates a four-stage multirate filter cascade, which provides a wideband and two narrowband outputs. The complex narrowband outputs are obtained via a subsampling mixer and span over the top 15% or the top 10%, respectively, of the original band. The system sampling clock can vary from 2 to 10 MHz to enable tuning to a specific frequency window located anywhere between 30 and 150 kHz. Both chips process four sonar channels in parallel and, when clocked at 10 MHz, dissipate a combined power of 416 mW (104 mW per channel).     

Precoding Based Channel Prediction for Underwater Acoustic OFDM

The life duration of underwater cooperative network has been the hot topic in recent years. And the problem of node energy consuming is the key technology to maintain the energy balance among all nodes. To ensure energy efficiency of some special nodes and obtain a longer lifetime of the underwater cooperative network, this paper focuses on adopting precoding strategy to preprocess the signal at the transmitter and simplify the receiver structure. Meanwhile, it takes into account the presence of Doppler shifts and long feedback transmission delay in an underwater acoustic communication system. Precoding technique is applied based on channel prediction to realize energy saving and improve system performance. Different precoding methods are compared. Simulated results and experimental results show that the proposed scheme has a better performance, and it can provide a simple receiver and realize energy saving for some special nodes in a cooperative communication.