IMPROVING THE UNDERWATER ACOUSTIC CHANNEL QUALITY VIA BEAMFORMING

Abstract

Underwater acoustic communication operates in one of the most complex wireless communica- tion environments. Therefore, sophisticated signal processing techniques are required to make high-throughput communications possible. A typical acoustic channel has long impulse response and suffers from time variation caused by Doppler effects. In this thesis, we apply the delay-and- sum beamformer accompanied by multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm to alleviate the harsh conditions of the underwater acoustic channel. Those proposed algorithms improve the channel power-delay profile and reduce Doppler spread causing channel taps variations.