Adaptive OFDM-based acoustic underwater transmission: System design and experimental verification

Abstract

In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a software defined orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based underwater acoustic (UWA) communication system with link adaptation. Our system implementation is based on the customized versions of National Instruments Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP). The modified USRPs are interfaced with hydrophone front-ends for acoustic transmission. We investigate the performance of various adaptive algorithms where both modulation order/type and power on each subcarrier are selected based on channel conditions in order to maximize throughput. The experimental in-pool test results verify the superiority of adaptive transmission.