Acoustic Technologies for Underwater

Communication Networks
Bayan Sharif
Sub-Sea Acoustic Communications
High dat a rat e video/ sonar: 16 Kbps @ 3 km
Low dat a rat e command/ cont rol: 100 bps @10 km
Sensor dat a
Typical Applications
Command link
Very high integrity, low data rate:
Control of valves, lights, pumps
Enable/disable functions
remotely
AUV navigation
Reverse link
High integrity and data-rate:
Video and sonar images
Monitoring of sensors: depth,
temperature, pressure
Instrument data
Sensor nodes deployed
from helicopter or any
small vessel
Surface nodes provide acoustic
communication/tracking for
subsea nodes, GPS and
radio/satellite gateway to
central workstation
Wireless Sensor Network Potential Application Scenario
Movement with
Currents
Active buoyancy
Sensor Payload: Chemical or biological
Main Technologies
Acoustic Communications
Point-to-point
Mobility
Low Power
Other
Electromagnetic
Optical
EM Acoustic
Acousto Optical

Why ~Kbps and not ~Mbps?
~Mbps can be achieved using EM
propagation, however, seawater is
highly conductive and signal
attenuation is therefore very high.
Feasible distances can only be
achieved by acoustic propagation,
but only at low frequencies
therefore limiting achievable
bandwidth, hence ~Kbps.
~10 dB/m
~.001 dB/m
Joseph Hansen, Nav al Post graduat e School
Channel Range (km) Bandwidth (kHz)
Very Short < 0.1 >100
Short 0.1-1 20-50
Medium 1-10 10
Long 10-100 2-5
Very Long >100 <1
Acoustic Attenuation
Challenges to Acoustic Receivers
1803-1853
Mulltipath
Noise
Doppler
Low speed of
acoustic waves
(1500m/s) cause
Doppler effects up
to 1% for moving
underwater targets.

Sampling
clock
Transmit
waveform
Receive
waveform
Acoustic Speed
Other System-related Limitations
Battery life
Transducer frequency response roll-off
Fouling/corrosion
Half-duplex transmission
Sound speed depends on depth,
temperature, salinity, etc.

Deployment Cost
$5000
$10000
$15000
$20000
Deployment Met hod
Daily
Cost
More about the Underwater Channel
- Multipath, Doppler and Noise
Multipath: Shallow Water Channel (1 km)
Short-Term Variation
Long-Term Variation
Multipath Spread and Coherence Bandwidth
1
4 ms, 250 Hz
rms coh
rms
B

=
FFT
,
Coherence time and Doppler Bandwidth
FFT
Hz 4 . 0
d
B s 5 . 2
1
=
d
coh
B
T
,
4 ms 0.4 Hz 0.0016 1
rms d
B = <<
Underspread channel
Phase coherent communications is feasible,
BUT phase recovery is necessary
7
3 5
4
2
8
1
3 m
3 m
3 m
3 m
Side view
1 m
Junction
box


Transducer Array
Ambient Noise
Adaptive Receivers
Doppler Compensation

Acoustic Receiver Structures
Adaptive Receiver with Phase Recovery
Chirp
(Doppler tolerant)
BPSK-modulated
PN Sequence
QPSK-modulated
Information Bits
Training Sequence Data
Channel
Estimation
Receive
Element
Down-
conversion
Unit
Timing
Update
) ( n
Phase
Update
) ( n j
e

Adaptive
Algorithm
) (n y
) ( n
f
w
MMSE
Filter
Data
Decision
Device
) (n d
) (

n d
) (n e
) ( n
b
w
Feedback
Filter
Training
Sequence
Feedforward
Filter
2D-Rake Receiver Architecture (Temporal Combiner)
From other
receive
elements
l
) (
1
n
l
w
lK

Data
) (n d
) (

n d
) (n e
Training
Sequence
Decision
Device
Adaptive
Algorithm
Carrier
Phase
Update
) ( n j
e

M
M
S
E
F
l
t
e
r
M
M
S
E
F
l
t
e
r
M
M
S
E
F
l
t
e
r
M
M
S
E
F
l
t
e
r
) (
2
n
l
w ) ( n
lK
w ) (
1
n
lK
w
) (
1
n y
l
) (
2
n y
l
) (
1
n y
lK
) (n y
lK
) (n y
ls
) (n z
) (
1
n y
l
1 l

) (n r
l
) (
1 l l
n r ) (
lK l
n r
2-D Rake Multi-channel Receiver
User 1 User 2
Channel Impulse Responses
2-D Rake Multi-channel Receiver
1x2-AC Rake:
SINR
o
= 10.46 dB
1x1-AC Rake:
SINR
o
= 9.31 dB
Performance for User 2
1x4-AC Rake:
SINR
o
= 13.43 dB
1x3-AC Rake:
SINR
o
= 12.51 dB
Multichannel Receiver (Spatial-Temporal Combiner)
Receive
Array
Elements
Adaptive
Algorithm
Adaptive
Correlators
1
2
K
) (
1
n
c
w
) (
2
n
c
w
( )
K
n
c
w
) (
1
n y
( )
K
y n
) (
2
n y
Data
) (n d
) (

n d
) (n e
Training
Sequence
) ( n
b
w
Feedback
Filter
) (n z
Decision
Device
Carrier
Phase
Update
) ( n j
e

) (n y
s
1
( ) x n
( )
K
x n
2
( ) x n
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25
time (ms)
0.00
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.10
0.12
0.14
0.16
0.18
0.20
0.22
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25
time (ms)
0.00
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.10
0.12
0.14
0.16
0.18
0.20
0.22
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25
time (ms)
0.00
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.10
0.12
0.14
0.16
0.18
0.20
0.22
Array Configuration
1
2
3
4
5
6
The Sub-Sea Acoustic Channel
(2km)
Array Configuration
1
2
3
4
5
6
The Sub-Sea Acoustic Channel
(2km)
Significant temporal fluctuations
during single packets implies
requirement for adaptive
techniques
Relatively little separation
between elements (a few
wavelengths) results in low spatial
correlation between fluctuations
in channel response
2-D Rake Multi-channel Receiver
Performance for User 2

1x4-AC Rake:
SI NR
o
= 13.43 dB
1x3-AC Rake:
SI NR
o
= 12.51 dB
1x2-AC Rake:
SI NR
o
= 10.46 dB
1x1-AC Rake:
SI NR
o
= 9.31 dB
Combining Gain
6x4-AC Rake:
SI NR
o
= 17.91 dB
6x3-AC Rake:
SI NR
o
= 16.69 dB
6x2-AC Rake:
SI NR
o
= 15.37 dB
6x1-AC Rake:
SI NR
o
= 13.64 dB
Adaptive Receivers
Doppler Compensation

Acoustic Receiver Structures
Conventional Adaptive Receiver Structure
with both Phase and Timing Recovery
) ( n w
MMSE
Filter
Receive
Element
Down-
conversion
Unit
Timing
Update
) ( n
Phase
Update
) ( n j
e

) (n y
Data
Decision
Device
Training
Sequence
) (n d
) (

n d
) (n e
Adaptive
Algorithm
) (n z
Doppler-Shift in Wideband Communications
Doppler shift () modelled as a time scaling:

Equivalent (for a discrete-time sampled system) to scaling of the sampling
period (interpolation or decimation):


Then, inverse time-scaling will remove carrier/symbol shift:



Which corresponds to a scaling of the sampling frequency:
] ) 1 ( [ ] [
s s
T n s nT r + =
(

|
.
|

\
|
+
=
s s
T
n
r nT s
1
] [
s s
f f ) 1 (
'
+ =
) ( ) ( ) 1 ( t s t r + =
Doppler Compensation Methods
Block-based:





Closed-loop:

Interpolator
(1+

)
input
signal
Receiver
/demodulator
Block Doppler
estimator
Interpolator
(1+)
input
signal
Receiver
/demodulator
Cost
function
Block-based Doppler Compensation
Data packet
MF
waveform
MF
waveform
T
tp
T
rp
Matched filter output
1

=
tp
rp
T
T
This approach is well suited to stationary or slowly moving platforms where Doppler variations
are not excessive during data packet transmission.
MF waveform:
LFM chirp characterized by its start
frequency (
0
), stop frequency (
1
), and
time duration ( T ):



LFM chirp with B = 10kHz, T = 0.01s is
used to give Doppler tolerance > 1%
T
B
T
f f
k =

=
0 1
Interpolate
by I
Decimate
by D
FIR
filter
Signal
in
Signal
out

-
+
Complex
FIR Filter
(Forward)
Training
Sequence
I-Q
Mixer
Complex
FIR Filter
(Feedback)
Doppler
Pre-Processor
511 PN
BPSK
LFM
chirp
4096 symbol QPSK
data block
10ms 10ms 409.6ms 51.1ms
LFM
chirp
470.7ms Transmission Packet
Adaptive Doppler Compensation
Interpolation Factor
where kp is a proportional constant.
n p n n
k I I + =
+
.
1
| |
*
. arg
n n n
d y =
Down-
converter
(I-Q)
Linear
interpolator
(
s

I
.
s
)
Rx
Signal
Forward filter
h
0

(N taps)
S
Feedback
filter g
(M taps)
x
0
y
Training
Sequence
d
Update
Algorithm
Single element structure
Element 1
Element K
For significant Doppler shift variations arising from vehicle acceleration, a more
robust alternative would be adaptive closed loop Doppler compensation.
Block vs. Adaptive Doppler Compensation
Multichannel Receiver with Doppler Compensation
Receive
Array
Elements
Adaptive
Algorithm
Adaptive
Correlators
1
2
K
) (
1
n
c
w
) (
2
n
c
w
( )
K
n
c
w
) (
1
n y
( )
K
y n
) (
2
n y
Data
) (n d
) (

n d
) (n e
Training
Sequence
) ( n
b
w
Feedback
Filter
) (n z
Decision
Device
Carrier
Phase
Update
) ( n j
e

) (n y
s
1
( ) x n
( )
K
x n
2
( ) x n
Lin
Interpolate
Down
Convert
Down
Convert
Down
Convert
Lin
Interpolate
Lin
Interpolate
Emerging Technologies
MIMO-OFDM
OFDM
Processing efficiency
PAPR
Doppler tracking

MIMO
Increased throughput
Processing complexity
Size constraints
(e.g. ~1.5m spacing @ 10
kHz)

Acoustic Networks
Seaweb Network,
D. J. Grimmett,
Oceans 2007
Challenges
Node energy sustainability
Network optimisation
Physical Layer Network Coding
Without a relay the transmission power must be increased
and there is also a greater delay in exchanging messages.
PNC for Underwater Relay Networks
PNC
Mapping

-1

SISO
Decoder
Modulator

Encoder
Without a relay the transmission power must be increased
and there is also a greater delay in exchanging messages.
A shorter distance means reduced transmission
power. Employing PNC at the relay reduces the
delay in receiving messages.
Dei nt er l eaver
I nt er l eaver
Node 5
(3km)
Scheduling & Fault Tolerance
Half-duplex communications and severe latency
Node 1
(750m)
Master
Node
Node 3
(2.25km)
Node 2
(1.5km)
Node 4
(3km)
~20% throughput if all nodes are polled for data
~ 70% throughput by multi-cast data request, selecting nodes to avoid
collisions and hence exploit the channel latency.
Adaptive scheduling is vital to create an efficient subsea network
However, complexity increases with multi-hop routing and dynamic nodes.
Redundant nodes can maintain connectivity and coverage in the event of
node or communication failure.



Node 5
(3km)
Sensor nodes deployed
from helicopter or any
small vessel
Surface nodes provide acoustic
communication/tracking for
subsea nodes, GPS and
radio/satellite gateway to
central workstation
Wireless Sensor Network
Movement with
Currents
Active buoyancy
Sensor Payload: Chemical or biological
Oceanographic data
Pollution monitoring
Offshore exploration
Disaster prevention
Littoral Surveillance
Thank You
Bayan Sharif