Determination of the Underwater Channel Characteristics to Improve a Multiband OFDM Communication

International audienceIn this study, transducer system for wireless underwater communication is presented and discussed that utilizes multi-band Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). OFDM is a topic of great interest for wireless underwater communication since it offers the potential of achieving higher transmission data rates compared to single carrier approaches. For wireless underwater communication applications, the frequency dependent attenuation links the maximum available bandwidth with the desired transmission distance. As the problem of bandwidth and a range restriction due to frequency dependent transmission loss and multi-path spreading leads to Inter-symbol Interference (ISI) and large Doppler shifts and spreads (Inter-carrier Interference ICI): these parameters are crucial to improve wireless underwater communication. Additional to the parameters above mentioned, the battery powered network nodes limits the life time of the OFDM transceiver. For thus, the power efficiency is a desirable characteristic for wireless underwater communication. The goal of this study is to survey the determination and evaluation of the parameters of an OFDM transceiver for underwater communication based on the simulated channel characteristics