A Characterization of Underwater Acoustic Channels for Communication System Design

The underwater acoustic propagation channel fluctuates with respect to both space and time. This paper presents a mathematical characterization of the propagation channel and reviews recent published experimental progagation data. The ocean ambient noise characteristics are also discussed. The underwater acoustic channel exhibits relatively rapid space-time fluctuations which impose serious constraints on the system design and performance. The channel effects on several conventional signalling schemes is calculated and the need for more sophisticated approaches is shown. The existing channel capacity results for fluctuating channels are presented and system performance predictions discussed relative to these results.