A statistical-based Doppler-tolerant criterion for underwater acoustic time synchronization

In this paper we propose a scheme of a bank of signal replicas for the synchronization step of an underwater acoustic communication system. Each replica is designed to be Doppler-tolerant for a different section of a possible range of relative radial velocities between the transmitter and the receiver. We suggest a statistical approach for determining the width of each velocity section based on the Neyman-Pearson detection test, when there is a mismatch between a replica designed to a zero velocity, and an input signal which is time-scaled due to a non-zero relative radial velocity. The maximal allowable relative radial velocity, which is used to partition the assumed range of velocities, is selected such that the actual detection probability in the presence of a signal mismatch is at least the worst desired detection probability.