An Underwater Time Reversal Communication Method Using Symbol-Based Doppler Compensation with a Single Sound Pressure...

Area of Science:

• Underwater Acoustic (UWA) Communication
• Signal Processing
• Wireless Communication

Background:

• Underwater acoustic channels suffer from severe multipath and Doppler effects, degrading signal quality and hindering reliable communication.
• Existing UWA communication systems face challenges in achieving high performance due to these channel impairments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and evaluate a novel time reversal UWA communication method combined with symbol-based Doppler compensation (SBDC).
• To address signal degradation caused by multipath propagation and Doppler effects in UWA channels.
• To enhance the bit error rate (BER) and overall performance of UWA communication systems.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing a single-element time reversal mirror (TRM) for channel equalization and inter-symbol interference (ISI) mitigation.
• Implementing a symbol-based Doppler compensation (SBDC) technique to counteract Doppler shifts in the received signal.
• Conducting simulations with real sounding channels and a field experiment in the Songhua River.

Main Results:

• The proposed method effectively mitigates ISI caused by multipath propagation.
• SBDC successfully compensates for Doppler effects, reducing the BER.
• A field experiment achieved nearly error-free communication at 100 bit/s within a 2 kHz bandwidth.

Conclusions:

• The combined time reversal and SBDC method demonstrates significant improvements in UWA communication performance.
• The proposed technique is feasible and robust for real-world underwater acoustic environments.
• This approach offers a promising solution for reliable high-performance UWA communication.