Double the data rate in underwater acoustic communication using OFDM based on subcarrier power modulation

Abstract

Underwater communication is one of the most important and difficult challenges facing researchers due to the high attenuation of the signal, communication with the surface because of the harsh medium of water, and data transmission performance degradation as a result of various effects. Underwater acoustic communication (UWA) has a low data rate, which describes the disadvantage of this type of communication. In addition, it has a low bandwidth range and high latency but has a long transmission range as an advantage. Multicarrier wireless transmission systems increase the data rate by sending the data using more than one carrier. We proposed a noncoherent orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) method to increase the data rate in UWA communication systems. In addition, doubling the data rate in the OFDM using Subcarrier Power Modulation (OFDM-SPM) system can save half of the bandwidth. The MATLAB simulation program was used to implement the system in the underwater acoustic environment to increase its throughput. The proposed design uses Differential Phase Shift Keying (DPSK) with power control, and the data stream is transmitted through two-dimensional modulation schemes, the DPSK, and the power level of each subcarrier in the OFDM system with cyclic prefix (CP). The underwater channel was designed using a Rician fading multipath with a spreading loss formula as a function of distance and frequency. We designed an equalizer at the receiver side to recover the original signal as a function of three parameters which are: the channel effect as a rate between transmitting and receiving symbols, the Rician channel response, and the UWA spreading loss. OFDM-Subcarrier Power Modulation (OFDM-SPM) using the proposed equalizer performed better than the theoretical OFDM-SPM in the Rayleigh channel. The designed equalizer increased the performance of the OFDM-SPM system by 25% which helped to enhance the system’s throughput and doubled the data rate compared with the OFDM system, doubling the data rate using OFDM-SPM had been validated in laboratory experiments in the Time domain.