Transmit Beamforming for High-Rate Underwater Acoustic Communications

TL;DR

This paper proposes angle-based transmit beamforming strategies for underwater acoustic communication that leverage stable geometric components to reduce reliance on perfect channel knowledge, demonstrating improved data detection and bit error rates.

Contribution

It introduces a novel angle-based beamforming approach that exploits stable propagation paths, reducing the need for precise and timely channel estimates in underwater environments.

Findings

Effective in reducing mean-squared error in data detection

Improves bit error rate performance

Validated on SPACE and MACE data sets

Abstract

Transmit beamforming for underwater acoustic communication is challenging because it requires perfect knowledge of the channel to the receiver in advance. In practice, channel estimates must be learned through feedback and are often noisy or outdated because of feedback delay and channel variation. In this paper, we investigate angle-based beamforming strategies for a single-user link that reduce dependence on full channel knowledge by exploiting stable components of the geometric structure in the propagation field. In particular, we focus on scenarios in which there exists a dominant path that remains relatively stable over time, making it a suitable candidate for transmit beamforming. Experimental results using the SPACE and MACE data sets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in terms of data-detection mean-squared error and bit error rate.