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 lowcomplexity 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.

Soft Direct-Adaptation Based Bidirectional Turbo Equalization for MIMO Underwater Acoustic Communications

This paper proposes a soft direct-adaptation based bidirectional turbo equalizer for multiple-input multiple-output underwater acoustic communication systems. Soft, rather than hard, direct-adaptation based equalizer combined with the fast self-optimized least mean square algorithm is employed to achieve a faster convergence rate, and the second-order phase-locked loop is embedded into the equalizer to track the time-varying channel. Meanwhile, by utilizing a weighted linear combining scheme, the conventional soft direct-adaptation based equalizer is combined with the time-reversed soft direct-adaptation based equalizer to exploit bidirectional diversity and mitigate error propagation. Both the simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the soft direct-adaptation based bidirectional turbo equalizer outperforms the single-direction soft direct-adaptation based turbo equalizer, and achieves a faster convergence rate than the hard direct-adaptation based bidirectional turbo equalizer.

Immune particle swarm optimization of linear frequency modulation in acoustic communication

With the exploration of the ocean, underwater acoustic communication has attracted more and more attention in recent years. The underwater acoustic channel is considered to be one of the most complicated channels because it suffers from more serious multipath effect, fewer available bandwidths and quite complex noise. Since the signals experience a serious distortion after being transmitted through the underwater acoustic channel, the underwater acoustic communication experiences a high bit error rate （BER）. To solve this problem, carrier waveform inter- displacement （CWlD） modulation is proposed. It has been proved that CWlD modulation is an effective method to decrease BER. The linear frequency modulation （LFM） carrier-waves are used in CWlD modulation. The performance of the communication using CWID modulation is sensitive to the change of the frequency band of LFM carrier-waves. The immune particle swarm optimization （IPSO） is introduced to search for the optimal frequency band of the LFM carrier-waves, due to its excellent performance in solving complicated optimization problems. The multi-objective and multi- peak optimization nature of the IPSO gives a suitable description of the relationship between the upper band and the lower band of the LFM carrier-waves. Simulations verify the improved perfor- mance and effectiveness of the optimization method.

Cross-Ice Acoustic Communication:Cascade Acoustic Channel Model and Experimental Results

Cross-ice acoustic information transmission is an effective means of communication in polar sea areas covered by ice.However,the channel is extremely complicated because of the combined influence of water,ice,and air.Based on the normalmode theory,this paper establishes a cascade acoustic channel(CAC)model for the transmission of underwater acoustic waves across ice layer.The model can calculate the displacement response of the ice layer’s upper surface by separating the upward waves from normal modes in the water and multiplying it by a transmission coefficient matrix.The relationship between the displacement response of the upper surface of ice layer and the acoustic frequency is calculated by the finite-element method,and the calculation result was consistent with that of the CAC model.To verify the applicability of the model,a cross-ice acoustic communication experiment was conducted in Songhua River in January 2019.Experimental results show the energy of the acoustic signals received by geophones is closely related to sound frequency and crossice acoustic communication is feasible.The result of present research is important for understanding crossice acoustic channel characteristics and developing future cross-ice acoustic communication in polar sea areas.

An improved least mean square/fourth direct adaptive equalizer for under-water acoustic communications in the Arctic

An improved least mean square/fourth direct adaptive equalizer(LMS/F-DAE)is proposed in this paper for underwater acoustic communication in the Arctic.It is able to process complex-valued baseband signals and has better equalization performance than LMS.Considering the sparsity feature of equalizer tap coefficients,an adaptive norm(AN)is incorporated into the cost function which is utilized as a sparse regularization.The norm constraint changes adaptively according to the amplitude of each coefficient.For small-scale coefficients,the sparse constraint exists to accelerate the convergence speed.For large-scale coefficients,it disappears to ensure smaller equalization error.The performance of the proposed AN-LMS/F-DAE is verified by the experimental data from the 9th Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition.The results show that compared with the standard LMS/F-DAE,AN-LMS/F-DAE can promote the sparse level of the equalizer and achieve better performance.

RLS and LMS blind adaptive multi-user detection method and comparison in acoustic communication

RLS and LMS blind adaptive multi-user detection algorithm and multi-user detector was proposed to solve the problem of multi-user signal detection problem encountered in underwater acoustic communication networks.In simulation analysis,RLS and the LMS blind adaptive multi-user detector were designed and tested for synchronous and asynchronous multi-user communication process.The results of SIR comparison and MMSE comparison show that,both of the two methods can realize blind adaptive detection when any user change in multi-user communication,during this process,the training communication sequences are not needed.The RLS algorithm has about 5 dB higher in SIR compared with LMS algorithm,and the convergence velocity of RLS algorithm is also higher than LMS algorithm when the communication users change.RLS algorithm has better ability in multi-user detection than that of LMS algorithm,and it has great attraction and guiding significance for solving the problem of multiple access interference(MAI) in multi-user communication.

Novel joint encoding/decoding algorithms of fountain codes for underwater acoustic communication

Fountain codes are considered to be a promising coding technique in underwater acoustic communication（UAC） which is challenged with the unique propagation features of the underwater acoustic channel and the harsh marine environment. And Luby transform（LT） codes are the first codes fully realizing the digital fountain concept. However, in conventional LT encoding/decoding algorithms, due to the imperfect coverage（IC） of input symbols and short cycles in the generator matrix, stopping sets would occur and terminate the decoding. Thus, the recovery probability is reduced,high coding overhead is required and decoding delay is increased.These issues would be disadvantages while applying LT codes in underwater acoustic communication. Aimed at solving those issues, novel encoding/decoding algorithms are proposed. First,a doping and non-uniform selecting（DNS） encoding algorithm is proposed to solve the IC and the generation of short cycles problems. And this can reduce the probability of stopping sets occur during decoding. Second, a hybrid on the fly Gaussian elimination and belief propagation（OFG-BP） decoding algorithm is designed to reduce the decoding delay and efficiently utilize the information of stopping sets. Comparisons via Monte Carlo simulation confirm that the proposed schemes could achieve better overall decoding performances in comparison with conventional schemes.

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.

Collision Classification MAC Protocol for Underwater Acoustic Communication Networks Using Directional Antennas

Traditional underwater acoustic communication networks(UACNs)generally use omnidirectional transmission technology that causes a large number of data-packet collisions,thus resulting in low network throughput and high end-to-end delays.Compared with omnidirectional transmission technology,directional technology only sends and receives data packets in a specified direction.This can significantly reduce the probability of collisions and improve network performance.However,it also causes a deafness problem,which occurs when the sending node sends a data packet to the receiving node but the receiving node is unable to reply to the sender,because its antenna beam is closed.To resolve this issue,this study proposes a collision classification media access control(CC-MAC)protocol for UACNs.With this protocol,the underwater acoustic channel is divided into two subchannels,and the nodes transmit corresponding data types on them.The sending node can estimate the current status of the receiving node(i.e.,no collision,normal collision,deafness)according to the type of the data packet received and the sub-channel it arrived on,and it can choose correct options to improve network efficiency.Finally,we verify the performance of CC-MAC via simulations,showing that the protocol achieved higher network throughput and lower end-toend delays.

Modeling and Channel Estimation for Piezo-Acoustic Backscatter Assisted Underwater Acoustic Communications

Relying on direct and converse piezoelectric effects,piezo-acoustic backscatter(PAB)technology reflects ambient acoustic signals to enable underwater backscatter communications at near-zero power,which was first realized through a prototype.In this paper,we propose a mathematical model of the PAB assisted underwater acoustic(UWA)communication,and address the sparse channel estimation problem.First,we present a five-stage backscatter process to derive the backscatter coefficient,and propose the channel model for the shallow-water communications.Then,we formulate the shallow-water acoustic channel estimation problem as a sparse vector recovery one according to the compressed sensing theory,and leverage the orthogonal matching pursuit(OMP)algorithm to obtain the channel estimator.Finally,simulation results are provided to corroborate our proposed studies.

Cooperative Compressive Spectrum Sensing in Cognitive Underw ater Acoustic Communication Networks

Because of the specific of underwater acoustic channel,spectrum sensing entails many difficulties in cognitive underwater acoustic communication( CUAC) networks, such as severe frequency-dependent attenuation and low signal-to-noise ratios. To overcome these problems, two cooperative compressive spectrum sensing( CCSS) schemes are proposed for different scenarios( with and without channel state information). To strengthen collaboration among secondary users( SUs),cognitive central node( CCN) is provided to collect data from SUs. Thus,the proposed schemes can obtain spatial diversity gains and exploit joint sparse structure to improve the performance of spectrum sensing. Since the channel occupancy is sparse,we formulate the spectrum sensing problems into sparse vector recovery problems,and then present two CCSS algorithms based on path-wise coordinate optimization( PCO) and multi-task Bayesian compressive sensing( MT-BCS),respectively.Simulation results corroborate the effectiveness of the proposed methods in detecting the spectrum holes in underwater acoustic environment.

Space-division multiple access for CDMA multiuser underwater acoustic communications

Time reversal mirror （TRM） can use the physical characteristics of the underwater acoustic （UWA） channel to focus on the desired user in multi-user UWA communication. The active average sound intensity （AASI） detector can estimate all azimuths of users with the same frequency band at the same time in order to achieve directional communication by vector combination. Space-division multiple access （SDMA） based on TRM combined with the AASI detector is proposed in this paper, which can make the capacity of the code division multiple access （CDMA） UWA system significantly increase. The simulation and lake test results show that the 7-user UWA multi-user system can achieve low bit error communication.

Pilot-Free End-to-End Underwater Acoustic Communication System Based on Autoencoder

The long delay spreads and significant Doppler effects of underwater acoustic(UWA)channels make the design of the UWA communication system more challenging.In this paper,we propose a learning-based end-to-end framework for UWA communications,leveraging a double feature extraction network(DFEN)for data preprocessing.The DFEN consists of an attentionbased module and a mixer-based module for channel feature extraction and data feature extraction,respectively.Considering the diverse nature of UWA channels,we propose a stack-network with a two-step training strategy to enhance generalization.By avoiding the use of pilot information,the proposed network can learn data mapping that is robust to UWA channels.Evaluation results show that our proposed algorithm outperforms the baselines by at least 2 dB under bit error rate(BER)10^(−2)on the simulation channel,and surpasses the compared neural network by at least 5 dB under BER 5×10^(−2)on the experiment channels.

Underwater acoustic communication and the general performance evaluation criteria

Driven by the huge demand to explore oceans, underwater wireless communications have been rapidly developed in the past few decades. Due to the complex physical characteristics of water, acoustic wave is the only media available for underwater wireless communication at any distance. As a result, underwater acoustic communication(UAC) is the major research field in underwater wireless communication. In this paper, characteristics of underwater acoustic channels are first introduced and compared with terrestrial communication to demonstrate the difficulties in UAC research. To give a general impression of the UAC, current important research areas are mentioned. Furthermore, different principal modulation-based schemes for short-and medium-range communications with high data rates are investigated and summarized. To evaluate the performance of UAC systems in general,three criteria are presented based on the research publications and our years of experience in high-rate short-to medium-range communications. These three criteria provide useful tools to generally guide the design and evaluate the performance of underwater acoustic communication systems.

Fractional Fourier domain hopped communication method based on chirp modulation for underwater acoustic channels

To improve the data rate of underwater acoustic frequency-hopped communications, frequency hopping is applied to different orders of fractional Fourier domain (FrFD), to enable non-intrusive, bandwidth-limited acoustic communications. An FrFD frequency-hopped communication method based on chirp modulation, namely multiple chirp shift keying-FrFD hopping (MCSK-FrFDH), is proposed for underwater acoustic channels. Validated by both simulations and experimental results, this method can reach a bandwidth efficiency twice more than conventional frequency-hopped methods with the same data rate and anti-multipath capability, suggesting that the proposed method achieves a better performance than the traditional frequency hopped communication in underwater acoustic communication channels. Results also show that in practical scenarios, the MCSK-FrFDH system with longer symbol length performs better at the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), while the system with larger frequency sweeping range performs better at a high SNR.

A method of multichannel chaotic phase modulation spread spectrum and its application in underwater acoustic communication

Direct-sequence spread spectrum （DSSS） communication possesses low probability of detection and has been widely used in confidential communications. However, pseudo-noise （PN） sequences, used as spreading code in conventional DSSS communications, possess peri- odic character and binary value. In hostile environments, these distinct characters may lead to some important parameters of signals being estimated accurately, and then lead to the leakage of transmitted information. To solve the problem, we propose the chaotic phase modulation （CPM） sequence alternating the PN sequences. CPM sequence has complex values and constant envelope, and also possesses large quantity and good correlation characteristics. Moreover, it has more hidden features than conventional sequences by modulating its phases using chaotic sequence. To improve the data rate, we apply it into the technique of multichannel communica-tion. Simulation results show this scheme＇s superior bit error ratio （BER） performance, which demonstrates its feasibility in underwater acoustic communications.

Signal processing in underwater acoustic communication system for manned deep submersible "Jiaolong"

For the first time in the world, underwater acoustic transmission of images, human voice, data and texts between vehicle under 7000 m depth and surface ship was accomplished by underwater acoustic communication system of manned deep submersible Jiaolong＇. In this paper, signal processing in underwater acoustic communication system for manned deep submersible ＂Jiaolong＂ is introduced. （1） Four communication methods are integrated to meet different needs： 1） coherent underwater acoustic communication, with a variable transmission rate from 5 kbps to 15 kbps, to transmit images. 2） Non-coherent underwater acoustic com- munication, with a transmission rate 300 bps, to transmit texts, instructions, and sensor data. 3） Spread spectrum underwater acoustic communication, with a transmission rate 16 bps, to transmit instructions. 4） Underwater voice communication, using single sideband modulation to transmit hmnan voice. （2） Signal processing method in coherent communication mainly consists of concatenation of decision feedback equalizer and Turbo decoder, and wavelet based image compression with fixed length coding. In the equalizer, Doppler compensation, multi- channel combining and equalizer coefficients updating are all using fast self-optimized adaptive algorithm. （3） A linear hydrophone array is lowered from the mother ship to certain depth, and spatial diversity combining technology is adopted. （4） Diving trials of ＂Jiaolong＂ were carried out in Pacific Ocean. The communication range can cover nearly all ocean depth. One optical/acoustic image can be transmitted in 7 or 14 seconds.

Bidirectional turbo equalization for underwater acoustic communications

A direct-adaptation based bidirectional turbo equalizer for underwater acoustic communications is proposed.Abandoning the channel estimation process,the direct-adaptation based turbo equalizer embedded with digital phase-locked loop is adopted to track time-varying channel.The fast self-optimized algorithm is used to adjust the step size,thus a good tradeoff between the convergence speed and performance has been made.Furthermore,by minimizing the mean squared error,an optimal weighting factor is derived to exploit bidirectional diversity gain.The forward turbo equalizer is combined with the backward turbo equalizer to eliminate error propagation effect.Simulated and experimental results demonstrate that the bidirectional turbo equalizer outperforms the single directional one.It can be seen from the experimental results that,compared with the channel estimation based algorithm,the direct-adaptation based algorithm is less sensitive to the time-varying channel and has a lower bit error rate.

Frame synchronization for underwater acoustic communication based on maximum likelihood estimation

Traditional frame synchronization methods for underwater acoustic communication(UWAC) merely depend on correlation coefficient when synchronization signal detection is concerned and,hence,false triggering and missed synchronization can hardly be avoided in complex UWAC channels.In order to solve this problem,firstly,we analyze the effects of interference from noise,multipath and Doppler on frame synchronization;then we propose a new frame synchronization scheme based on parameter estimation.By exploiting the parameter estimation technique,we detect the synchronization signal according to the estimated parameters,thus the false triggering rate and missed synchronization rate can be reduced.We also simplify the maximum likelihood estimation to reduce computational cost.Simulation results indicate that this new scheme outperforms the traditional method in terms of delay resolution and correlation coefficient.Both static and mobile communication experimental results show that the correlation coefficient of the new scheme is higher than that of the traditional one.Moreover,the detection ability of the receiver is improved,which helps to avoid false triggering and missed synchronization.

Signal processing for noncoherent underwater acoustic communication approaching channel capacity

Noncoherent underwater acoustic communication channel in adverse conditions is modeled as a phase-random Rayleigh fading channel,and its capacity curve is derived.To approach the channel capacity curve,the concatenated code of the nonbinary LDPC code and the constant weight code is proposed for noncoherent communication which can late be iteratively decoded in the probability domain.Without information of channel amplitude or phase in the receiver,statistic parameters of the respective signal and noise bins were estimated based on the moment estimation method,the posterior probabilities of the constant weight code words were further calculated,and the nonbinary LDPC code was decoded with the nonbinary factor graph algorithm.It is verified by simulations that by utilizing the proposed concatenated code and its processing algorithm,gap to channel capacity curve is reduced by 3 dB when compared to the existing method.Underwater communication experiments were carried out in both deep ocean（vertical communication,5 km）and shallow lake（horizontal communication,near 3 km,delay spread larger than 50 ms）,in which the signal frequency band was 6 kHz to10 kHz,and the data transmission rate Was 357 bps.The proposed scheme can work properly in both experiments with a signal-to-noise ratio threshold of 2 dB.The performance of the proposed algorithm Was well verified by the experiments.