Random linear packet coding for high speed acoustic communication: An experimental analysis

This work focuses on random linear packet coding as an efficient method for reliable high-speed underwater communications over acoustic links with long delay. The transmitter sends coded packets with a pre-determined redundancy over a simplex link with no feedback. The receiver checks each received packet, discarding packets with errors, until the necessary degrees of freedom for successful decoding have been achieved. Each coded packet is modulated using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing(OFDM) for transmission over an acoustic channel. Differentially coherent detection is employed at the receiver for symbol detection. We focus on an experimental analysis using an in-air testbed and verifying the results with signals transmitted during an experiment conducted off the coast of Kauai, HI, in July 2011.