Adaptive detection for shallow-water acoustic telemetry withcochannel interference

Adaptive decision feedback equalization (DFE) has recently been used to enable high-rate data transmission through shallow-water acoustic channels. This adaptive receiver successfully tracks and suppresses intersymbol interference due to a dispersive multipath channel. However, acoustic modems which are used for network applications must also contend with interference due to cochannel signals from proximal modems. In this work, we propose and evaluate a multiuser receiver with cochannel interference suppression. The advantages of this multiuser receiver in the presence of strong cochannel interference are shown by a performance comparison to a bank of the single-user DFEs described above. Conclusions are supported in part by the demodulation of experimental data for two simultaneous cochannel signals and by a steady-state performance analysis     

Phase-coherent digital communications for underwater acousticchannels

High-speed phase coherent communications in the ocean channel are made difficult by the combined effects of large Doppler fluctuations and extended, time-varying multipath. In order to account for these effects, we consider a receiver which performs optimal phase synchronization and channel equalization jointly. Since the intersymbol interference in some underwater acoustic channels spans several tens of symbol intervals, making the optimal maximum-likelihood receiver unacceptably complex, we use a suboptimal, but low complexity, decision feedback equalizer. The mean squared error multiparameter optimization results in an adaptive algorithm which is a combination of recursive least squares and second-order digital phase and delay-locked loops. The use of a fractionally spaced equalizer eliminates the need for explicit symbol delay tracking. The proposed algorithm is applied to experimental data from three types of underwater acoustic channels: long-range deep water, long-range shallow water, and short-range shallow water channels. The modulation techniques used are 4- and 8-PSK. The results indicate the feasibility of achieving power-efficient communications in these channels and demonstrate the ability to coherently combine multiple arrivals, thus exploiting the diversity inherent in multipath propagation     

Multichannel Detection for Wideband Underwater Acoustic CDMA Communications

Direct-sequence (DS) code-division multiple access (CDMA) is considered for future wideband mobile underwater acoustic networks, where a typical configuration may include several autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) operating within a few kilometers of a central receiver. Two receivers that utilize multichannel (array) processing of asynchronous multiuser signals are proposed: the symbol decision feedback (SDF) receiver and the chip hypothesis feedback (CHF) receiver. Both receivers use a chip-resolution adaptive front end consisting of a many-to-few combiner and a bank of fractionally-spaced feedforward equalizers. In the SDF receiver, feedback equalization is implemented at symbol resolution, and receiver filters, including a decision-directed phase-locked loop, are adapted at the symbol rate. This limits its applicability to the channels whose time variation is slow compared to the symbol rate. In a wideband acoustic system, which transmits at maximal chip rate, the symbol rate is down-scaled by the spreading factor, and an inverse effect may occur by which increasing the spreading factor results in performance degradation. To eliminate this effect, feedback equalization, which is necessary for the majority of acoustic channels, is performed in the CHF receiver at chip resolution and receiver parameters are adjusted at the chip rate. At the price of increased computational complexity (there are as many adaptive filters as there are symbol values), this receiver provides improved performance for systems where time variation cannot be neglected with respect to the symbol rate [e.g., low probability of detection (LPD) acoustic systems]. Performance of the two receivers was demonstrated in a four-user scenario, using experimental data obtained over a 2-km shallow-water channel. At the chip rate of 19.2 kilochips per second (kc/s) with quaternary phase-shift keying (QPSK) modulation, excellent results were achieved at an aggregate data rate of up to 10 kb/s     

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     

Improvement of Time-Reversal Communications Using Adaptive Channel Equalizers

The spatial and temporal focusing properties of time-reversal methods can be exploited for undersea acoustic communications. Spatial focusing mitigates channel fading and produces a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the intended receivers along with a low probability of interception elsewhere. While temporal focusing (compression) reduces significantly intersymbol interference (ISI), there always is some residual ISI depending upon the number of transmitters, their spatial distribution (spatial diversity), and the complexity of the channel. Moreover, a slight change in the environment over the two-way propagation interval introduces additional ISI. Using multilevel quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM) in shallow water, we demonstrate that the performance of time-reversal communications can be improved significantly by cascading the received time series with an adaptive channel equalizer to remove the residual ISI     

Compound compensation strategies for wireless data communicationsover the multimodal acoustic ocean waveguide

Underwater acoustic communications (UAC) at the reverberation-limited range results in severely distorted information signals. Wide-band signals are subject to both intermodal and intramodal-type of dispersions. The underwater acoustic channel impulse response and the sidelobes strongly depend on the waveguide structure and the source and receiver positions. The motion and displacement from this position, as well as other environmental variabilities impose a real-time adaptivity for the receiver operation to keep track of the fluctuations. To increase the system's reliability and data rate, there is a need to employ adaptive equalizers and diversity techniques to improve the margins against noise, and intersymbol interference (ISI). Blind adaptive equalization (BAE) is the ideal adaptive compensation when operating point-to-multipoint networks, and centralized communication systems in general. Inherent optimum multiple resonant modes within the ocean acoustic waveguide can be exploited judiciously via a new proposed parallel data multicarrier modulation (MCM) scheme by sending data over the multiple subcarriers. MCM might eventually obviate equalization which introduces higher-order computational complexity to the receiver. The above modulation eliminates multipaths and allows operation at multiples of the single-carrier transmission rate. The system's immunity to distortions such as ISI, fast fades, and impulsive noises, is increased due to incorporation of symbol guard space. Direct comparisons with single carrier schemes (such as higher-order statistics (HOS)-based equalization) are of great interest, since the proposed new receiver configuration has low-complexity to provide a compact, portable and low-power practical acoustic modem. Finally, network topology issues are considered to determine optimum network architectures for underwater acoustic LANs. A central topology (CT) supported by BAE and MCM transmission is proposed     

A Study of Spatial Processing Gain in Underwater Acoustic Communications

Spatial processing, including beamforming and diversity combining, is widely used in communications to mitigate intersymbol interference (ISI) and signal fading caused by multipath propagation. Beamforming suppresses ISI (and noise) by eliminating multipath (and noise) arrivals outside the signal beam. Beamforming requires the signals to be highly coherent between the receivers. Diversity combining combats ISI as well as signal fading by taking advantage of the independent information in the signal. Classical (spatial) diversity requires that signals are independently fading, hence are (spatially) uncorrelated with each other. In the real world, the received signals are neither totally coherent nor totally uncorrelated. The available diversity is complex and not well understood. In this paper, we study the spatial processing gain (SPG) as a function of the number of receivers used, receiver separation, and array aperture based on experimental data, using beamforming and multichannel combining algorithms. We find that the output symbol signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for a multichannel equalizer is predominantly determined by the array aperture divided by the signal coherence length, with a negligible dependence on the number of receivers used. For a given number of receivers, an optimal output symbol SNR (OSNR) is achieved by spacing the receivers equal to or greater than the signal coherence length. We model the SPG in decibels as the sum of the noise suppression gain (NSG, equivalent to signal-to-noise enhancement) and the ISI suppression gain (ISG, equivalent to signal-to-ISI enhancement) both expressed in decibels; the latter exploits the spatial diversity and forms the basis for the diversity gain. Data are interpreted using the modeled result as a guide. We discuss a beam-domain processor for sonar arrays, which yields an improved performance at low-input SNR compared to the element-domain processor because of the SNR enhancement from beamforming many sensors.     

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     

Analysis of channel effects on direct-sequence and frequency-hoppedspread-spectrum acoustic communication

Multiuser underwater acoustic communication is one of the enabling technologies for the autonomous ocean-sampling network (AOSN). Multiuser communication allows vehicles, moorings, and bottom instruments to interact without human intervention to perform adaptive sampling tasks. In addition, multiuser communication may be used to send data from many autonomous users to one buoy with RF communications capability, which will then forward the information to shore. The two major signaling techniques for multiuser acoustic communication are phase-shift keying (PSK) direct-sequence spread-spectrum (DSSS) and frequency-shift keying (FSK) frequency-hopped spread-spectrum (FHSS). Selecting between these two techniques requires not only a study of their performance under multiuser conditions, but also an analysis of the impact of the underwater acoustic channel. In the case of DSSS, limitations in temporal coherence of the channel affect the maximum spreading factor, leading to situations that may be better suited to FHSS signals. Conversely, the multipath resolving properties of DSSS minimize the effects of frequency-selective fading that degrade the performance of FSK modulation. Two direct-sequence receivers potentially suitable for the underwater channel are presented. The first utilizes standard despreading followed by decision-directed gain and phase tracking. The second uses chip-rate adaptive filtering and phase tracking prior to despreading. Results from shallow water testing in two different scenarios are presented to illustrate the techniques and their performance     

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.      

Implementation of multiuser detection strategies for coherentunderwater acoustic communication

This paper presents multiple access interference cancellation techniques based on joint implementation of spatial-beamforming and multiuser detection strategies for coherent underwater acoustic communication network. Performances of adaptive multiuser detection strategies based on weighted parallel, successive, and recursive successive interference cancellation techniques are compared using experimental sea-trial data. Results show that the receiver structure adopting weighted recursive successive interference cancellation (RSIC) exhibits robustness in extracting useful data for weak users in the presence of co-channel interference from strong users. In addition, this type of structure simultaneously suppresses the summed interference effects contributed by weaker users toward the strongest user. The RSIC structure is therefore a potential candidate for multiple access interference suppression in coherent shallow water acoustic communication systems     

Adaptive equalization techniques for acoustic telemetry channels

A tutorial review of adaptive equalization techniques for combating intersymbol interference in high-speed digital communications over time-dispersive channels is given. Various equalizer structures and the associated adaptive algorithms, including both fractionally spaced and symbol-spaced equalizers, are presented. Also considered is the application of adaptive equalization techniques to underwater acoustic telemetry channels     

Performances of multi-element multi-user detection strategies in ashallow-water acoustic network (SWAN)

A multi-element receiver strategy is proposed in this paper for a multi-user shallow-water acoustic network (SWAN). The base station receiver, equipped with prior knowledge of the synchronization and training sequences of all intended users, has the task of demodulating the received signals of each user independent of the presence of other users. The adopted receiver strategy enables robust communications through the challenging underwater environment which is limited by both environmental and system factors. The channel is characterized by inter-symbol interference due to multipath propagation and multiple access interference. In this paper, we propose a number of multi-user detection receiver structures employing adaptive decision feedback equalization and spatial diversity to mitigate the effect of these two types of interference. Computer simulations and experimental sea trials conducted in the North Sea in 1999 were used to test the receiver strategies' performance for a two user near far scenario. Amongst a number of strategies tested, the structure based on recursive successive interference cancellation demonstrated improved performance overall     

Spatial diversity processing for underwater acoustic telemetry

A large increase in the reliability of shipboard or stationary underwater acoustic telemetry systems is achievable by using spatially distributed receivers with aperture sizes from 0.35 to 20 m. Output from each receiver is assigned a quality measure based on the estimated error rate, and the data, weighted by the quality measure, are combined and decoded. The quality measure is derived from a Viterbi error-correction decoder operating on each receiver and is shown to perform reliability in a variety of non-Gaussian noise and jamming environments and reduce to the traditional optimal diversity system in a Gaussian environment. The dynamics of the quality estimator allow operation in the presence of high-power impulsive interference by exploiting the signal and noise differential travel times to individual sensors. The spatial coherence structure of the shallow water acoustic channel shows relatively low signal coherence at separations as short as 0.35 m. Increasing receiver spacing beyond 5 m offers additional benefits in the presence of impulsive noise and larger-scale inhomogeneities in the acoustic field. A number of data transmission experiments were carried out to demonstrate system performance in realistic underwater environments     

Adaptive multiuser detection for underwater acoustical channels

An underwater acoustic local area network (ALAN) provides multipoint-to-point telemetry between many high-rate, ocean-bottom sensors and a central, surface-deployed receiver in the 10-30 kHz vertical acoustical channel. Ocean-bottom modems initiate the transmission process by requesting data channel time slots via a common narrow-band request channel. Request packets overlap in time and frequency in this channel, and the throughput and average transmission delay rely heavily on the successful resolution of the request packet collisions. This paper presents the design, analysis, and experimental demonstration of a request channel receiver capable of resolving collisions between several asynchronous and cochannel packets. The receiver algorithm differs from standard capture schemes (by demodulating the data from both strong and weak transmitters), conventional spread-spectrum receivers (by overcoming the near-far problem), and existing multiple-access demodulation techniques (by adapting to the number of interfering signals, and the unknown phase, Doppler, amplitude, and timing of each signal in the collision). The receiver demodulates the collided packets by decision-directed techniques through a novel method of estimating the interference for each user which minimizes error propagation due to inaccurate tentative decisions. An inwater experiment illustrates that this technique is extremely desirable for collision resolution in underwater acoustic local area networks, and also for underwater autonomous vehicles with both sidescan sonar as well as acoustic telemetry links     

浅海声信道文本信息传输研究

论文首先介绍浅海声信道声传输的基本特性,指出在此类信道中进行多媒体信息传输的特殊困难.随后论述了文本信息传输所具有的抗噪声、抗起伏等优良性能,较能适应于水声信道的复杂性和多变性,但属于较高速率的文本信息传输,多途干扰仍然是文本信息正确检测的根本障碍.文中分析了频率跳变技术克服时域扩散较短的浅海多途的可行性和需解决的关键技术.海上获得的初步实验结果说明了文本信息传输所具有的优越性,值得今后继续深入的研究.     

Underwater acoustic receiver employing direct-sequence spreadspectrum and spatial diversity combining for shallow-water multiaccessnetworking

This paper proposes an underwater adaptive-array receiver structure that utilizes direct-sequence code division multiple access and spatial diversity combining in order to achieve reliable low-data rate multiuser communication in an asynchronous shallow-water network. The performance of the proposed receiver architecture has been verified by means of offline processing of data acquired during sea trials in the summer of 1999 in the North Sea. Results show that this computationally efficient structure is near-far resistant and provides successful multiuser operation in the shallow-water channel     

频率编码水声遥控指令的抗多途对策

浅海信道中,多途干扰是水声遥控指令可靠检测的首要障碍,本文探讨频率编码遥控指令的抗多途对策,即通过阻塞多途来削落多途干扰。     

浅海声信道中脉位信息检测的抗多途研究

简述了浅海声信道中多途干扰的主要特征及其对脉位信息检测的影响,探讨克服多途干扰的几种可能途径,并提出了一种有效的抗多途方法,以实现浅海声信道中脉位信息的可靠、精确检测。     

Correlation-based decision-feedback equalizer for underwater acoustic communications

The purpose of this paper is to develop a decision-feedback equalizer (DFE) using a fixed set of parameters applicable to most shallow oceans with minimal user supervision (i.e., a turn key system). This work is motivated by the superior performance [bit error rate (BER)] of the multichannel DFE compared with other methods, such as passive-phase conjugation (PPC), at the same time noting its sensitivity to different acoustic environments. The approach is to couple PPC, utilizing its adaptability to different environments, with a single-channel DFE. This coupling forms an optimal processor for acoustic communications in theory, but it has never been implemented in practice. By coupling with DFE, the method achieves the same spatial diversity as conventional multichannel DFE, without requiring a large number of receivers as does PPC. The correlation-based DFE in terms of the autocorrelation functions of the channel impulse responses summed over the receiver channels (the Q function) is derived. This paper shows in terms of waveguide physics, further supported by real data, the many desirable features of the Q function that suggest, given adequate sampling of the water column, a general applicability of the correlation-based equalizer to different environments, irrespective of the sound speed profiles, bottom properties, and source-receiver ranges/depths. This property can be expected to hold approximately for a small number of receivers with spatial diversity. This paper demonstrates the robustness of the new equalizer with moving source data despite the range change (which modifies the impulse response) and symbol phase change due to time-varying Doppler.