Underwater Acoustic Modems

TLDR

Underwater acoustic networks are increasingly studied, with research focusing on deployment constraints and the highly variable channel influenced by temperature, pressure, and salinity, making it essential to understand modem capabilities such as maximum range and data rates. This paper conducts an exhaustive survey of existing underwater acoustic modems, highlighting their key features. The study reviews modem hardware, compares literature proposals with commercial units, and evaluates enhancements to network simulators used for underwater communication modeling.

Abstract

Due to the growing interest using underwater acoustic networks, there are more and more research papers about underwater communications. These papers are mainly focused on deployments and studies about the constraints of the underwater medium. The underwater acoustic channel is highly variable and the signal transmission can change according to environmental factors, such as the temperature, pressure, or salinity of the water. For this reason, it is important to know how these devices are developed and the maximum distance and data transfer rates they can achieve. To this end, this paper presents an exhaustive study of existing underwater acoustic modems where their main features are highlighted. We also review the main features of their hardware. All presented proposals in the research literature are compared with commercial underwater acoustic modems. Finally, we analyze different programs and improvements of existing network simulators that are often used to simulate and estimate the behavior of underwater networks.