Very-High-Frequency Single-Input–Multiple-Output Acoustic Communication in Shallow Water

Abstract

Very-high-frequency (VHF) underwater acoustic communication is a relatively unexplored terrain, but its importance is expected to increase with the growing demands for larger bandwidths and higher data rates. Knowledge of VHF propagation channels is a prerequisite to achieve high data throughput. In this paper, we present time-variant angle-resolved impulse responses for a set of 250-kHz shallow-water channels. The measurements were performed at high resolution using 64 hydrophones arranged in a line array. The measured channels are characterized by delay spreads of several milliseconds, Doppler spreads of tens of hertz, and angular spreads up to 30 °. The angular spread is not separable from the delay-Doppler spread, and the impulse response depends heavily on the direction of arrival. Different beamforming and multichannel equalizer strategies are compared for a single-input-multiple-output configuration. A method combining subarray beamforming and multichannel equalization delivers in both noise- and interference-limited scenarios, transferring data at 78.125 kb/s over ranges up to 770 m.