Characterization of Wireless Shallow-Water Communication Channel Based on Gaussian Beam Tracing

Wireless acoustic signals propagation through the shallow water channels are strongly influenced by marine environmental factors. Understanding how the environment degrades different modulation schemes and to develop more robust schemes or select the appropriate scheme for the given conditions is very important. Based on the representative sound-speed profiles of the Taiwan Strait, this paper adopts Gaussian beam tracing model to compute a point source propagation eigenrays and obtain characteristics of underwater acoustic propagation loss for the flat and fluctuation of sea bottom under three differential sound-speed profiles conditions. Simulation results reveal the relationship between transmission loss and typical channel parameters, such as sound-speed gradient, sea bottom fluctuation, source depth and propagation distance, which provides a valuable guide for the practical design of underwater wireless communication systems