Swell effect in shallow underwater acoustic communications

Abstract

The need for monitoring underwater sensors, communications between submarines or sonar, makes underwater acoustic communications an important field of research. Electromagnetic waves are quickly attenuated in this medium and thus acoustic waves are the best option for communications. When two buoys are present, one acting as the emitter and the other as the receiver, it is crucial for the communication system to know the response of the channel. This paper presents a study of the underwater channel and proposes a model developed in Matlab where physical phenomena like attenuation, absorption and the swell effect are considered. This latter effect causes a Doppler spread in the signal, and a time-varying impulse response.