Characterization of underwater acoustic communication channel

Abstract

The objective of this work is to study the multipath underwater channel characteristics by estimating the channel impulse response and its derived functions such as scattering functions, power delay profile and Doppler spread. This work performs the channel characterization from the data measured from south- west Bay of Bengal during July 2017 at a range of about 1 km and 3 km in a depth of approximately 20 m. To estimate the channel impulse response, Linear Frequency Modulated (LFM) pulse with the bandwidth of 4 kHz and the center frequency of 11 kHz is used as a probe signal. Experimental data analysis shows the variations between two channels of 1 km and 3 km ranges. Other characterization functions such as multipath intensity profile and Doppler power spectrum are estimated from the channel impulse response. The estimated channel parameters convey that the channels are quasi stationary and the Doppler frequency spreads are due to the movement of the transmitter and receiver positions.