Performance analysis of underwater acoustic communication based on beam diversity in deep water

Underwater communication performance is degraded by the influence of Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI) due to multipath. Passive time reversal processing is the most effective technique for mitigating multipath, and the diversity combining method can be used to improve its performance. This paper analyzed communication performance using the beam diversity combining method, which combines signals obtained through the beam steering to various angles. Directions of arrival were estimated through the beam-time migration, which, in turn, was estimated from probe signals received by a vertical line array. The performance was analyzed based on the number and type of combinations among the estimated angles. In this paper, the data obtained from the Biomimetic Long range Acoustic Communications 2018 (BLAC18) experiment, which was conducted in the East sea, ~50 km east of Pohang, in October 2018, were used for the analysis. The output Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) was used as communication indicators.