wavelet-based detector for underwater communication

The need for reliable underwater communication at Florida Atlantic University is critical in transmitting data to and from Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) and remote sensors. Since a received signal is corrupted with ambient ocean noise, the nature of such noise is investigated. Furthermore, we establish connection between ambient ocean noise and fractal noise. Since the matched filter is designed under the assumption that noise is white, performance degradation of the matched filter due non-white noise is investigated. We show empirical results that the wavelet transform provides an approximate Karhunen-Loeve expansion for 1/f-type noise. Since whitening can improve only broadband signals, a new method for synchronization signal design in wavelet subspaces with increased energy-to-peak amplitude ratio is presented. The wavelet detector with whitening of fractal noise and detection in wavelet subspace is shown. Results show that the wavelet detector improves detectability, however this is below expectation due to differences between fractal noise and ambient ocean noise.