Performance prediction of passive time reversal communications

Abstract

A recent paper [M. Stojanovic J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 117, 1173-1185 (2005)] presented theoretical performance bounds of time reversal communications. In this letter, the performance of time reversal communications is evaluated using at-sea experimental data and compared to the theory for two different approaches; (1) time reversal alone and (2) time reversal combined with channel equalization. It is found that approach (1) shows a good agreement between theory and data. On the other hand, approach (2) indicates that the data is about 3-5 dB below the theory which assumes perfect knowledge of the channel, an infinite number of taps to remove the intersymbol interference, and no need for phase tracking. Taking these into consideration, the theoretical performance can provide a useful upper bound for predicting performance of time reversal communications.