Acoustic telemetry - An overview

Acoustic telemetry from underwater submersibles and sensors has been pursued ever since it was recognized that the ocean could support signal transmission. While it has been evident that some form of communication is possible, the ocean has proved to be a distressingly difficult medium in which to achieve high data rates. High data rate transmission requires a wide bandwidth which is severely constrained in the ocean because of the absorption of high-frequency energy. Moreover, the ocean is a very reverberant environment with both time and frequency spreading of signals; this further limits data transmission rates. The net effect of the bandwidth and reverberation constraints has led to either acoustic telemetry systems with low data rates or to the use of tethered systems. Over the years, various forms of acoustic communication systems have been developed. These have included direct AM and SSB for underwater telephones, FM for sensor data, FSK and DPSK for digital data, and parametric sonars for narrow-beam systems. As offshore operations have increased, several other systems have been proposed and/or built to respond to particular needs. In this paper, we review the underwater channel and the limitations that it imposes upon acoustic telemetry systems. We then survey some of the systems that have been built (excluding military systems) and indicate how they use various communication system principles to overcome these limitations.