International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 0882

Volume 4, Issue 11, November 2015

1136

Review on Adaptive Acoustic Modem for Underwater Sensor Networks

Mayuri Dharma Shinde1, Prof. Shailesh Jadhav2
1
2

Department of Electronics and Telecommunication, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune

Department of Electronics and Telecommunication, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune

ABSTRACT
There is a growing interest in underwater networked
systems for oceanographic applications. Under water
communication is difficult due to factors like low data
rate, multi-path propagation, small available bandwidth,
strong signal attenuation, time variations of the channel
especially over long ranges. Underwater acoustic
communication is relatively slow as compared to radio
communication. The underwater acoustic channel is
highly variable; each link can experience a vastly
conditions, which change according to the locations of
the communicating nodes as well as environmental
factors.
This article describes the potential benefits of the

adaptive modem and an Adaptive acoustic modem

design.

operation modes: a low data rate frequency shift keying

(FSK) mode and a high data rate phase shift keying
(PSK) mode and it is widely used in the research
community [3]. Other examples include a dual-mode
acoustic modem and a software modem. The dual mode
modem can switch between two modulation schemes,
frequency hopping (FH) and direct sequence spread
spectrum (DSSS), according to channel signal-to-noise
ratio (SNR) [4]. The software modem allows the user to
select a desired modulation technique, data-rate, and
frame length [5]. These modems require the user to set
certain communication parameters prior to deployment
and they are not able to adapt to variable channels in
real-time, after the network is deployed.
At the end, the paper proposes an underwater acoustic
modem that adapts its data rate and modulation scheme
to the channel conditions.

Keywords - Acoustic modem, underwater sensor

networks, Wireless communication.

1. Introduction
Underwater acoustic communication is a method of
receiving and sending signal or massages below the
water. In underwater communication there are low data
rates as compared to terrestrial communication, since
underwater communication uses acoustic waves instead
of electromagnetic waves. Underwater sensor networks
have a wide range of oceanographic applications
including environmental monitoring, marine exploration,
and coastal surveillance also for disaster prevention. The
preferred mode of wireless communication in
underwater networks is based on acoustic signals. This is
due to the fact that radio frequencies suffer high
attenuation in underwater [1]. Optical communication is
possible but only in clear water and relatively short
distances. As such, the acoustic channel is used
commonly to achieve wireless communications in the
underwater environment. Unfortunately, underwater
Acoustic communication is challenging due to large and
variable multipath delay spread, Doppler shifts and long
propagation delays [2].
Modems with adaptable features have been previously
proposed. For example, in order to deal with different
channels, the Woods Hole Micro-Modem, has two

2. Channel Characteristics
This chapter describes the various characteristics of the
underwater acoustic channel and how they affect
communication.
2.1 Multipath Delay Spread:
Due to reflections off of the surface and
the ocean floor, a single transmission can arrive at a
receiving node through multiple paths and at different
time. Multipath delay spread is defined as the time
between the arrival of the first and the last discernible
sound waves that have traveled along these multiple
paths.
If the multipath delay spread is too large, then the
received transmission can be difficult to demodulate due
to inter-symbol interference (ISI).
2.2 Doppler Shift:
Doppler shift is caused by the movement of
transmitting or receiving nodes in the network as well as
by ocean swells and currents. This can have a significant
effect on certain frequency-dependent modulation
schemes.
2.3 Low and variable signal to noise ratio (SNR):
The underwater communication channel
suffers from significant ambient noise which can be

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International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 0882
Volume 4, Issue 11, November 2015

attributed to four main sources: turbulence, shipping,

breaking waves, and thermal noise. In addition, surface
motion due to wind-driven waves specifically affects
signals in the acoustic range. This type of interference
leads to relatively low SNR and often times, less
reliable communication.
2.4 High and variable propagation delay:
One of the most defining characteristics of
the underwater acoustic communication channel is high
and variable propagation delay. A typical propagation
speed for an acoustic transmission is approximately
0.67s/km. To make matters worse, the speed of sound
through water can vary significantly with changes in
salinity and temperature.
2.5 Frequency Selective Fading:
Frequency selective fading is a
characteristic that has the effect of varying degrees of
attenuation across different frequencies and transmission
distances.
2.6 High transmission power consumption:
Power consumption is an important issue
for underwater acoustic sensor networks because the
nodes are battery powered and would ideally be deployed
for several months at a time. Unlike terrestrial
transceivers, underwater acoustic transceivers consume a
significant amount of power when transmitting, mainly
due to the physical characteristics of underwater acoustic
transducers.
Due to the high power consumption that occurs during
transmission, adjusting the data rate of an underwater
acoustic modem can have significant impact on overall
power consumption through increases or decreases in total
transmit time.
The characteristics described in this section present many
challenges for underwater acoustic communication.

3. Modulation Schemes
Due to the high variability of the underwater acoustic
communication channel, several different modulation
schemes have been used [6]. The most commonly used
modulation schemes and techniques for underwater
communication are discussed in this section.
3.1 Frequency Shift Keying (FSK):
Frequency Shift Keying is a noncoherent modulation scheme that can maintain
reliable communication in harsh conditions.

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Many researchers use variations of FSK due to its

robustness and its simple receiver design.
However, one major drawback with FSK is its slow bit
rates when compared to other modulation schemes. For
high data rate applications such as autonomous
underwater vehicle (AUV) control and audio or video
streaming, FSK is not ideal.
3.2 Phase Shift Keying (PSK):
Phase shift keying is a slightly more
complex coherent modulation scheme. Coherent
modulation schemes in general do not do well in
multipath environments.
This can often times be counteracted with the use of a
receiver array, but receiver arrays are not plausible for
all applications.
3.3 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM):
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
is a modulation technique that divides the total
frequency band into different orthogonal sub-carrier
frequencies. Each sub-carrier frequency can implement
its own conventional modulation scheme.
OFDM is very sensitive to Doppler shift, but offers high
data rates and can do well in environments with
frequency selective fading and high multipath. Issues
related to Doppler shift can be mitigated with a complex
receiver using non-uniform Doppler compensation.
OFDM is therefore gaining more and more popularity as
receiver technology advances.
3.4 Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS):
DSSS is a technique that spreads modulated
data across a wider frequency band. This technique can
be advantageous in withstanding channels with
frequency selective fading and high multipath.
Time guards are frequently used in DSSS to further
reduce the chance of inter symbol interference. Since
DSSS is a spread spectrum technique, data is first
modulated by a traditional modulation scheme, such as
PSK, and then the modulated signal is spread across a
certain frequency band using DSSS.

4. Adaptive Acoustic Modem Design

Underwater acoustic modems basically consist of three
fundamental components: transducer, analog transceiver
and digital hardware platform for signal processing and
control.

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International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 0882
Volume 4, Issue 11, November 2015

1138

modules used to calculate the three targeted channel

characteristics; multipath delay spread, doppler shift,
and SNR. The Receiver (Control) module is a receiver
module that is always set to the control packet
modulation scheme and bit rate.
The Receiver (Data) module is the adaptive receiver
module that can change its modulation scheme and bit
rate according to the control signals from the processor.
The processor will do the transition between the
transmit and receive modes based on whether or not it
has sensor data to transmit. The last module is the
adaptive Transmitter module. This module represents
the transmit functionality of the modem. When data is
ready to be sent, the bit stream will be sent from the
processor and modulated according to the specified
modulation scheme and bit rate.

Fig. 1: Adaptive modem block diagram.

The aim of modem architecture is that can be

dynamically changed either before deployment or during
its operation.
The system is made up of an underwater acoustic
transducer, an analog transceiver, and the digital portion
of the adaptable modem. The Receiver (Data) and the
Transmitter, represent the adaptive modules in that their
modulation scheme and bit rate can be selected from a
set of pre-defined choices. In order to illustrate the
adaptive nature of the modem, the following is an
example of a simple point-to-point exchange between
two nodes, A and B, where node A wishes to send data
to node B. This example is based on the notion of
channel reciprocity [7].
First, node A will send a Request to Send (RTS) packet
to node B. This packet will include a series of chirp
signals that can be used for measuring the channel. Upon
hearing the RTS packet, the receiver will calculate the
multipath delay spread, Doppler shift, and SNR via its
channel estimation module and determine the ideal bit
rate and modulation scheme with which to
communicate. Node B will then send a Clear To Send
(CTS) packet intended for node A. This CTS packet
will include the desired parameters that node B would
like to communicate with. Node B will adjust its
parameters to the ones specified in the CTS packet,
followed by node A once it has received the packet.
Node A will then begin transmitting its data to node B.
The Receiver (Data) and the Transmitter, represent the
adaptive modules in that their modulation scheme and
bit rate can be selected from a set of pre-defined
choices. In this figure, the analog to digital (ADC)
input is routed to the Channel Estimation, Receiver
(Control), and Receiver (Data) modules in parallel. The
channel estimation module is made up of three sub

5. Comparisons of various modems

Following table shows the result analysis of various
adaptive acoustic modems. Comparison of various
modems is given in this table.
Table I
Underwater Acoustic Modems
Modem

Platform

Modulation

WHOI
MicroModem 2

DSP

FH-FSK /
QPSK

80-5000

Fish
Robot
Modem

MCU

Binary AM

1000

Uconn
Modem

DSP

OFDM

3200-6400

HERMES
Modem

NS

BPSK /
QPSK

1600087000

Aqua
Modem

DSP

AM-DSSS

133

Adaptive
acoustic
Modem

FPGA

Adaptable

Adaptable

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Bit rate
(bps)

International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 0882
Volume 4, Issue 11, November 2015

6. Conclusion
This paper makes a case for an adaptive acoustic
modem in underwater sensor networks. This paper
describes the potential benefits of the adaptive
modem and an Adaptive acoustic modem design. It
also describes the various characteristics of underwater
acoustic channel and gives the idea about how they
affect communication. It gives the most commonly used
modulation schemes and techniques for underwater
communication and a result analysis of various
underwater acoustic modems.

References
Journal Papers:
[1] L. Wu, J. Trezzo, D. Mirza, P. Roberts, J. Jaffe and
Y. Wang, Designing an Adaptive Acoustic Modem for
Underwater Sensor Networks, IEEE Transactions On
Embedded System, vol. 4, no. 1, March 2014.
[2] E. M. Sozer, M. Stojanovic, and J. G. Proakis,
Underwater acoustic networks, IEEE J. Oceanic Eng.,
vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 7283, Jan. 2000.
[3] E. Gallimore, J. Partan, I. Vaughn, S. Singh, J.
Shusta, and L. Freitag, TheWHOIMicromodem-2: A
scalable system for acoustic communications and
networking in Proc. Oceans, Seattle, WA, pp. 17,
2010
[4] Y. Tao, P. Zhu, and X. Xu, Dual-mode modulation
based research of underwater acoustic modem, in Proc.
IEEE Int. Conf, WiCOM, Chengdu, China, pp. 13, 2010
[5] B. Borowski and D. Duchamp, The software
modem-A software modem for underwater acoustic
communication in Proc. Wuwnet09, Berkeley, CA,
Nov. 2009
[6] M. Chitre, S. Shahabodeen, and M. Stojanovic,
Underwater acoustic communications and networking:
Recent advances and future challenges, Marine
Technol. Soc. J., vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 103116, 2008.
Theses:
[7] Jennifer Trezzo, Design and Implementation of an
Adaptive Underwater Acoustic Modem and Test
Platform, University Of California, San Diego, 2013.

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