Communication Design for Underwater Acoustic Positioning Networks

The past decade has seen a growing interest in underwater acoustic positioning networks (UAPNs) because of their wide applications in marine research, ocean monitoring, offshore exploration, and defense or homeland security. Efficient communication among all sensors and receivers is crucial so as to make positioning service available. Traditional UAPNs could locate only one target, that are growing obsolete due to increasing demands for multiple users working at the same time. Due to the demands for multiple users working simultaneously and narrow acoustic bandwidth, new efficient and reliable communication and networking protocols are required in design for UAPNs. In this paper, we aim to provide the procedure of communication design for UAPNs based on sonar equation and spread spectrum communication. What’s more, signal design and performance analysis are supplied. The results show that the signal we designed have ideal correlation performance and high processing gain. The signal is suitable for multiple users UAPNs and thus show favorable potential in ocean engineering applications.