REALIZATION OF OFDM BASED UNDERWATER ACOUSTIC COMMUNICATION

Vijay A, Sunil Jacob, Shelma Jacob.K

Abstract: Nowadays underwater communication plays a vital role in applications from commercial extends to military purposes. Present underwater communication systems involve the transmission of information in the form of sound, electromagnetic (EM), or optical waves. All these techniques has their own benefits and limitations. Acoustic communication is the most versatile and widely used technique in underwater environments because of its low attenuation compared with others. Acoustic waves are more applicable for thermally stable, deep water settings. But acoustic waves in shallow water can be adversely affected by temperature gradients, surface ambient noise, and multipath propagation due to reflection and refraction. The much slower speed of acoustic propagation in water, about 1500 m/s (meters per second), compared with that of electromagnetic and optical waves, and is another limiting factor for efficient communication and networking. Nevertheless, the currently favorable technology for underwater communication is upon acoustics. In this paper, we are planning to design a simple underwater acoustic system. We first discuss about the problems of underwater communication. Then we are designing a data transmission system in underwater and its analysis is done in the next step.

Keywords: Underwater acoustic communication, Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, Differential phase shift keying

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2015.0411012