Modeling of Acoustic Channel for Underwater Wireless Communication System in AUV Application

Abstract

This paper present the modeling of seawater acoustic channel to yield the optimum carry frequency for autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) wireless communication system. Many underwater acoustic wireless communications had been explore whereby the exploration is mainly done for a specific distance. However, the wireless communication distance of an AUV with its control vessel varies due to the task at certain depth. This current AUV is design with an operation depth of 0 to 2000m. Therefore, the existing model had limitation when the operation depth varies base on the task assignment. This is because the optimum frequency to noise ration varies with respect to the distance of the transmission. To surmount the existing modeling method, this paper presents an improved method to identify the optimum carry frequency for AUV wireless communication system. Mathematical model with the relation of frequency, distance and noise is formulated and simulation is carried out to tabulate the optimum frequencies at various distances. From the frequency band, the average frequency is identified as the optimum transmission carries frequency. The identified frequency will be used for further hardware development.