Application of OFDM-CDMA in Multi-user Underwater Acoustic Communication Based on Time Reversal Mirror

In the paper, a novel method, which exploits both the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)-Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technique and the time reversal mirror technique, is investigated to realize multi-user underwater acoustic communication. By taking advantages of these two techniques, the proposed method has the capability of effectively suppressing multi-path interference, reducing the error rate, enhancing the processing gain and improving user capacity. Simulations verify the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed method.

Single Photon Detection Technology in Underwater Wireless Optical Communication:Modulation Modes and Error Correction Coding Analysis

This study explores the application of single photon detection(SPD)technology in underwater wireless optical communication(UWOC)and analyzes the influence of different modulation modes and error correction coding types on communication performance.The study investigates the impact of on-off keying(OOK)and 2-pulse-position modulation(2-PPM)on the bit error rate(BER)in single-channel intensity and polarization multiplexing.Furthermore,it compares the error correction performance of low-density parity check(LDPC)and Reed-Solomon(RS)codes across different error correction coding types.The effects of unscattered photon ratio and depolarization ratio on BER are also verified.Finally,a UWOC system based on SPD is constructed,achieving 14.58 Mbps with polarization OOK multiplexing modulation and 4.37 Mbps with polarization 2-PPM multiplexing modulation using LDPC code error correction.

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.

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.

Frequency Diversity for OFDM Mobile Communication via Underwater Acoustic Channels

The major constraint on the performance of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing （OFDM） based underwater acoustic （UWA） communication is to keep subcarriers orthogonal. In this paper, Doppler estimation and the respective compensation technique along with various diversity techniques were deliberated for OFDM-based systems best suited for underwater wireless information exchange. In practice, for mobile communication, adjustment and tuning of transducers in order to get spatial diversity is extremely difficult. Considering the relatively low coherence bandwidth in UWA, the frequency diversity design with the Doppler compensation function was elaborated here. The outfield experiments of mobile underwater acoustic communication （UWAC） based on OFDM were carried out with 0.17 bit/（s-Hz） spectral efficiency. The validity and the dependability of the scheme were also analyzed.

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.

Review Article: Multicarrier Communication for Underwater Acoustic Channel

In past decades, there has been a growing interest in the discussion and study of using underwater acoustic channel as the physical layer for communication systems, ranging from point-to-point communications to underwater multicarrier modulation networks. A series of review papers were already available to provide a history of the development of the field until the end of the last decade. In this paper, we attempt to provide an overview of the key developments, both theoretical and applied, in the particular topics regarding multicarrier communication for underwater acoustic communication such as the channel and Doppler shift estimation, video and image transmission throw multicarrier techniques, etc. This paper also includes acoustic propagation properties in seawater and underwater acoustic channel representation.

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.

Feedback strategies for iterative channel estimation in OFDM underwater acoustic communications

The extremely limited bandwidth in underwater acoustic communication makes channel estimation using fewer pilot symbols more challenging. Iterative channel estimation( ICE) can be used to refine channel estimation with limited number of pilots,by coupling the channel estimator with channel decoder. In this paper,various feedback strategies in ICE are discussed. The performance of a decision feedback based on the cost function is improved by modifying the design and another four feedback strategies are summarized,including hard/soft decision feedback and their threshold-controlled versions. Simulation results show that ICE can achieve impressive gains over the non-iterative receiver and the gains are more significant with fewer pilots. Furthermore,soft decision feedback outperforms hard decision feedback; while the feedback based on the cost function and soft decision feedback have quite close performance.

Power optimization algorithm for OFDM underwater acoustic communication using adaptive channel estimation

An adaptive channel estimation algorithm for the channel length is proposed to construct a channel estimation model suitable for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing(OFDM)underwater acoustic communication signals for the dependence of traditional channel estimation algorithms on channel length information.This algorithm can be adopted to evaluate channel estimation quality in real time and to adaptively adjust the channel length of the channel estimation algorithm according to the evaluation result,which satisfies the need of accurate estimation of unknown underwater acoustic channels and communication application;based on the study on the relationship between the OFDM communication bit error rate and the subcarrier signal to noise ratio,a self-adjusting optimization scheme for OFDM subcarrier transmitting power is proposed,which realizes underwater communication with the low bit error rate through higher energy efficiency.The validity of the research content is verified through simulation and field experiments.

LDPC Coded DQPSK Modulation with Iterative Detection Method for Underwater Acoustic Communications

Aimed at the conventional serial communication system fails when the channel was frequency-selective,long delay and multi-paths effect,resulting in inter-symbol-interference( ISI),an iterative system for underwater acoustic communication( UWAC) was proposed,which employed iterative differential detection and spread spectrum technique. The proposed scheme adopts π /4-DQPSK soft demodulation to overcome the difficulty of phase ambiguity. For suppression of ISI in UWAC,joint demodulation and decoding iteration was used. The communication scheme has the characteristic of long communication range at low SNR,and the maximum range is up to 100 km. The theoretic analysis and simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms traditional serial one. When SNR is- 6 dB,after four joint iterations,compared with serial scheme,BER can decrease from 10- 2to 10- 5.

Null subcarriers based Doppler scale estimation with polynomial interpolation for multicarrier communication over ultrawideband underwater acoustic channels

This paper addresses the extremal problem of the null subcarriers based Doppler scale estimation in underwater acoustic （UWA） orthogonal frequency division multiplexing （OFDM） communication. The cost function constructed of the total energy of null subcarriers through discrete Fourier transform （DFT） is proposed. The frequencies of null subcarriers are identified from non-uniform Doppler shift at each tentative scaling factor. Then it is proved that the cost function can be fitted as a quadratic polynomial near the global minimum. An accurate Doppler scale estimation is achieved by the location of the global scarifying precision and increasing the computation minimum through polynomial interpolation, without complexity. A shallow water experiment is conducted to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method. Excellent performance results are obtained in ultrawideband UWA channels with a relative bandwidth of 67%, when the transmitter and the receiver are moving at a relative speed of 5 kn, which validates the proposed method.

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.

New Wideband Beam-forming Method Used in Underwater Communication System

A novel wideband beam-forming structure with constant beam width based on complex coefficients (FIR) digital filters used in underwater acoustic communication is proposed. First,the received signals are compensated with integer sampling period by using delay line. Then their complex envelopes are calculated by using frequency shift method. Finally,the envelopes are weighted by using complex coefficients FIR digital filters whose coefficients are optimized. Simulation results show that,in the communication band,the maximum difference between the designed beam and desired beam is less than 0.3 dB when the ratio of communication band to carrier frequency is 0.85.

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.

A New Transmit Beamforming Method for Multi-User Communication in Dual-Function Radar-Communication

This paper develops a new transmit beamforming for an integrated mechanical and electrical scanning dual-function radar-communication(DFRC)system.Differing from the related some works using beampattern sidelobe level to communication,we exploit the fact that transmit beamforming weight vector u k in directionθand weight vector u*k in direction-θcan achieve the same spatial power distribution,and formulate a new transmit beamforming vector design problem accounting for some extra sidelobe level constraints.By doing so,the number of the transmit beamforming weight vectors and the computing demand in the multi-user communication(MUC)scenario can be reduced.Finally,the numerical examples are designed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed design strategy in comparison with the existing method.

Sonar Image Target Detection for Underwater Communication System Based on Deep Neural Network

Target signal acquisition and detection based on sonar images is a challenging task due to the complex underwater environment.In order to solve the problem that some semantic information in sonar images is lost and model detection performance is degraded due to the complex imaging environment,we proposed a more effective and robust target detection framework based on deep learning,which can make full use of the acoustic shadow information in the forward-looking sonar images to assist underwater target detection.Firstly,the weighted box fusion method is adopted to generate a fusion box by weighted fusion of prediction boxes with high confidence,so as to obtain accurate acoustic shadow boxes.Further,the acoustic shadow box is cut down to get the feature map containing the acoustic shadow information,and then the acoustic shadow feature map and the target information feature map are adaptively fused to make full use of the acoustic shadow feature information.In addition,we introduce a threshold processing module to improve the attention of the model to important feature information.Through the underwater sonar dataset provided by Pengcheng Laboratory,the proposed method improved the average accuracy by 3.14%at the IoU threshold of 0.7,which is better than the current traditional target detection model.

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.

A criterion based adaptive RSIC scheme in underwater communication

Multi-access interference(MAI)is the main source limiting the capacity and quality of the multiple-input multipleoutput orthogonal frequency division multiplexing(MIMO-OFDM)system which fulfills the demand of high-speed transmission rate and high quality of service for future underwater acoustic(UWA)communication.Therefore,multi-user detection(MUD)is needed at the receiver of the MIMO-OFDM system to suppress the effect of MAI.In this research,MUD is achieved by using a criterion based adaptive recursive successive interference cancellation(RSIC)scheme at the receiver of a MIMO-OFDM system whose transceiver model in underwater communication is implemented by using the Bellhop simulation system.The proposed scheme estimates and eliminates the MAI through user signal detection and subtraction from received signals at the receiver of the MIMO-OFDM system in underwater environment.The bit error rate(BER)performance of the proposed scheme is analyzed by using weight filtering and weight selection criteria.By Matlab simulation,it is shown that the BER performance of the proposed scheme outperforms the conventional matched filter(MF)detector,the adaptive successive interference cancellation(SIC)scheme,and the adaptive RSIC scheme in the UWA network.