Comparison of Sweep Spread Carrier and Frequency Shift Chirp Modulation in Shallow Waters

Chirps or frequency sweeps are widely used in acoustic underwater communication due to their beneficial correlation properties and resilience against Doppler shifts and background noise. We compare sweep spread carrier (S2C) and frequency shift chirp modulation (FSCM), two chirp-based acoustic underwater communication techniques. The evaluation took place in very-shallow water scenarios with static and floating transmission channels. We show that even in scenarios with strong interference, both transmission techniques exhibit a low bit error ratio (BER). Furthermore, we discover the limits of both methods and discuss potential improvements.

Content

DDC Class

600: Technology