Acoustic Channel Modeling and Simulation for Underwater Acoustic Wireless Sensing Networks

Underwater acoustic channels are band-limited and reverberant, posing many obstacles to reliable, phase-coherent acoustic communications. In terrestrial wireless sensor networks, the nodes use radio frequency (RF) to build up the communication. In underwater environments, due to water absorption, radio wave does not work well. Compared to radio waves, sound has superior propagation characteristics in water, making it the preferred technology for underwater communications. While many high frequency communication experiments have been conducted in shallow water, few have carried out systematic studies on the channel properties at a time scale relevant for communications.