High-rate wireless data communications: an underwater acoustic communications framework at the physical layer

A variety of signal processing functions are performed by Underwater Acoustic Systems. These include: 1) detection to determine presence or absence of information signals in the presence of noise, or an attempt to describe which of a predetermined finite set of possible messages {mi, i = 1,...,M} the signal represents; 2) estimation of some parameter θˆ associated with the received signal (i.e. range, depth, bearing angle, etc.); 3) classification and source identification; 4) dynamics tracking; 5) navigation (collision avoidance and terminal guidance); 6) countermeasures; and 7) communications. The focus of this paper is acoustic communications.