A modem design for underwater acoustic networking in the High North

Abstract

We design a software modem for long range underwater acoustic communications in ice-covered oceans. The modem is equipped with three coded modulation schemes achieving 1.8, 21.4 and 96.2 bps, respectively. In addition, we design a new large-scale underwater channel simulator and test the modem performance in the underwater environment of Baffin Bay. Our analysis shows that ranges of more than 200 km can be achieved during summer months provided that the link exploits the ducted sound propagation. During winter months, however, this performance may not be always possible and multiple hops will be needed to cover the same range. The results presented in this work are the basis for the study of adaptive routing solutions for data delivery in multi-hop networks.