Simulations of an adaptive equalizer applied to high-speed oceanacoustic data transmission'

Computer simulations are carried out to study the feasibility of an adaptive equalizer applied to an hydroacoustic data-transmission channel. The channel is examined with a comprehensive acoustical model to acquire worst-case examples of the ocean acoustic transmission channel. The equalizer performance is investigated by simulations with a computer-generated channel response. Equalizer behavior in a mobile time-variant environment is also studied by use of a simplified, time-discrete multipath channel model. A stochastic gradient lattice equalizer is simulated for a channel which varies due to movement of the transmitter platform. The equalizer was able to track a velocity of up to 0.4 m/s for a favorable transmission geometry, using a transmitter beamwidth of 10°. The results demonstrate the feasibility of coherent modulation schemes for medium-distance ocean acoustic telemetry. It was found that small beamwidths are imperative in maintaining signal coherence and in facilitating adaptive equalization. In particular, narrow-beam transducers will reduce equalizer complexity as well as the frequency spread     

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。     

北极冰下水声通信中改进的最小均方/四次方直接自适应均衡器

本文提出了一种适用于北极冰下水声通信的最小均方/四次方直接自适应均衡器（LMS/F-DAE）。它能处理基带复信号,与LMS相比,具有更好的均衡效果。考虑到均衡器的稀疏特性,在其代价函数中加入自适应范数（AN）作为约束。它能根据均衡器系数的大小自适应变化：对于小系数,此约束项存在以加快收敛速度;对于大系数,此约束项不存在以减小均衡误差。利用第九次中国北极科学考察得到的实验数据验证AN-LMS/F-DAE的性能。结果表明,与传统的LMS/F-DAE相比,AN-LMS/F-DAE能提升均衡器的稀疏性且均衡性能更优。     

子波在水声信道多分辨率均衡方法中的应用

本文在确定了水声信道的数学描述后，提出了在信道自适应过程中，可以应用子波对信号进行多分辨率分解，逐尺度地对信道进行均衡，这样，不但减少了运算数据量，也减少了均衡所需的权系数个数，计算机仿真结果令人满意。     

高速水声通信中的相位补偿研究

利用相位补偿来解决高速水声通信中的载波恢复问题,并分析了联合相位补偿和信道均衡时的系统性能。研究结果表明：使用相位补偿后,均衡器可以有效地抵抗频率偏移造成的信道相位旋转,跟踪频率偏移能力提高了一个数量级以上。     

时变水声信道中基于BEM的迭代信道估计技术

水声信道的多径时延扩展和时变特性对信道估计和均衡技术的研究带来了很大的挑战,同时也决定了水声信道是一种时频双扩展信道,提出一种水声OFDM通信系统中基于软信息的迭代信道估计技术,利用基于复指数基扩展模型(CE-BEM)进行信道估计。OFDM系统本身可以消除由于多径引起的符号间干扰(ISI)。基于导频的BEM信道估计,可以实现对时变信道的估计,结合基于软信息迭代的迭代均衡模块,将每次迭代生成的符号软判决信息作为辅助导频用于信道估计。同时,为了防止由于信道时变引起的信道子载波间干扰(ICI)对导频符号的影响,采用基于保护间隔的导频插入法插入导频。仿真结果显示基于BEM的软信息迭代信道估计性能较非迭代信道估计时明显提升。     

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     

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     

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.     

Blind equalization based on RLS algorithm using adaptive forgetting factor for underwater acoustic channel

Blind equalization based on adaptive forgetting factor, recursive least squares （RLS） with constant modulus algorithm （CMA）, is investigated. The cost function of CMA is simplified to meet the second norm form to ensure the stability of RLS-CMA, and thus an improved RLS-CMA （RLS-SCMA） is established. To further improve its performance, a new adaptive forgetting factor RLS-SCMA （ARLS-SCMA） is proposed. In ARLS-SCMA, the forgetting factor varies with the output error of the blind equalizer during the iterative process, which leads to a faster convergence rate and a smaller steady-state error. The simulation results prove the effectiveness under the condition of the underwater acoustic channel.     

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.     

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     

Neural network error corrector for binary messages onhydro-acoustic channels

An application of neural networks for the identification and correction of transmission errors in binary messages is described. The network is used as a classifier of detected hydroacoustic signals. It converts the signals into one of a possible alphabet of symbols. The algorithm used is a Hamming-type neural network classifier associated with the transmission of a Hamming code. This system can detect and correct all transmission errors if the number of errors is less than or equal to half the Hamming distance between transmitted symbols minus one. Symbols to be transmitted are chosen and associated to messages, assuring that bit-to-bit nonsimilarities result on the prescribed Hamming distance. The auto-associative error correcting scheme can be used to generate a teaching signal to a supervised learning equalizer tracking the channel nonstationary characteristics. The proposed system is intended for use in hydroacoustic communication applications and is undergoing sea tests     

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.     

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     

Performance limitations in underwater acoustic telemetry

Performance limitations in digital acoustic telemetry are addressed. Increases in computational capabilities have led to a number of complex but practical solutions aimed at increasing the reliability of acoustic data links. These solutions range from ocean-basin scale data telemetry to video-image transmission at a few hundred yards' distance. The opportunity to implement highly complex tasks in real time on modest hardware is a common factor. The data rates range from 1 to 500 kb/s and are much slower than satellite channels, while acceptable system complexity is higher than virtually any other channel with comparable data throughput. The basic performance bounds are the channel phase stability, available bandwidth, and the channel impulse response fluctuation rate. Phase stability is of particular concern for long-range telemetry, channel fluctuation characteristics drive equalizer, and synchronizer design; the bandwidth limitation is a direct constraint on data rate for a given signaling method     

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.      

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.     

Low complexity adaptive equalizers for underwater acoustic communications

Interference signals due to scattering from surface and reflecting from bottom is one of the most important problems of reliable communications in shallow water channels. To solve this problem, one of the best suggested ways is to use adaptive equalizers. Convergence rate and misadjustment error in adaptive algorithms play important roles in adaptive equalizer performance. In this paper, affine projection algorithm （APA）, selective regressor APA（SR-APA）, family of selective partial update （SPU） algorithms, family of set-membership （SM） algorithms and selective partial update selective regressor APA （SPU-SR-APA） are compared with conventional algorithms such as the least mean square （LMS） in underwater acoustic communications. We apply experimental data from the Strait of Hormuz for demonstrating the efficiency of the proposed methods over shallow water channel. We observe that the values of the steady-state mean square error （MSE） of SR-APA, SPU-APA0 SPU-normalized least mean square （SPU-NLMS）, SPU-SR-APA0 SM-APA and SM-NLMS algorithms decrease in comparison with the LMS algorithm. Also these algorithms have better convergence rates than LMS type algorithm.     

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.