Field testing of underwater acoustic communication using Doppler-resilient orthogonal signal division multiplexing in coastal area of Suruga Bay

Abstract

Mobile underwater acoustic (UWA) communication is still challenging, since the mobile UWA channel is characterized by severe delay and Doppler spreads. In this paper, we describe a field test of Doppler-resilient orthogonal signal division multiplexing (D-OSDM)—a signal modulation technique designed to address delay and Doppler spreads efficiently. The experiment was performed in a coastal area of Suruga Bay, which has typical shallow-water sound speed profiles with delay and Doppler spreads of 5–25 ms and 1–8 Hz, respectively. The results indicated that UWA communication using D-OSDM is an effective communication tool that can provide reliable data transfer even in a mobile UWA channel with delay and Doppler spreads.