Autoregressive model of an underwater acoustic channel in the frequency domain

Abstract The underwater acoustic (UWA) channel model based on the multipath delay–amplitude or the angle of departure (AoD)–angle of arrival (AoA) require many parameters to describe a broadband underwater acoustic (UWA) channel. In this paper, an autoregressive (AR) model is developed to describe the channel in the frequency domain with few parameters. The AR model used here is with an order P, where P is also related to the number of main multipath clusters. Hence, only P + 1 parameters, which consist of the variance of the complex Gaussian white noise (CGWN) and the P pole values of the AR model, are required to describe UWA channel. Each pole value is corresponded to a multipath cluster in the channel, where its phase is correlated with the average multipath delay, and its absolute value is related to the multipath energy. A comprehensive analysis was performed to characterize the statistical distribution of each pole value and the CGWN variance. The results showed that the absolute value and phase of each pole satisfied the Weibull and gamma distributions, respectively, and the variance obeyed a lognormal distribution. Simulation channels were generated with different distributions of the AR model parameters, and the root mean square (RMS) delay obeyed a similar cumulative distribution function as the measured channel.