Statistical Studies of Fading in Underwater Wireless Optical Channels in the Presence of Air Bubble, Temperature, and Salinity Random Variations (Long Version)

Optical signal propagation through underwater channels is affected by three main degrading phenomena, namely absorption, scattering, and fading. In this paper, we experimentally study the statistical distribution of intensity fluctuations in underwater wireless optical channels with random temperature and salinity variations as well as the presence of air bubbles. In particular, we define different scenarios to produce random fluctuations on the water refractive index across the propagation path, and then examine the accuracy of various statistical distributions in terms of their goodness of fit to the experimental data. We also obtain the channel coherence time to address the average period of fading temporal variations. The scenarios under consideration cover a wide range of scintillation index from weak to strong turbulence. Moreover, the effects of beam-collimator at the transmitter side and aperture averaging lens at the receiver side are experimentally investigated. We show that the use of a transmitter beam-collimator and/or a receiver aperture averaging lens suits single-lobe distributions such that the generalized Gamma and exponential Weibull distributions can excellently match the histograms of the acquired data. Our experimental results further reveal that the channel coherence time is on the order of $10^{-3}$ seconds and larger which implies to the slow fading turbulent channels

Simplified scheduling for underwater acoustic networks

The acoustic propagation speed under water poses significant challenges to the design of underwater sensor networks and their medium access control protocols. Similar to the air, scheduling transmissions under water has significant impact on throughput, energy consumption, and reliability. In this paper we present an extended set of simplified scheduling constraints which allows easy scheduling of underwater acoustic communication. We also present two algorithms for scheduling communications, i.e. a centralized scheduling approach and a distributed scheduling approach. The centralized approach achieves the highest throughput while the distributed approach aims to minimize the computation and communication overhead. We further show how the centralized scheduling approach can be extended with transmission dependencies to reduce the end-to-end delay of packets. We evaluate the performance of the centralized and distributed scheduling approaches using simulation. The centralized approach outperforms the distributed approach in terms of throughput, however we also show the distributed approach has significant benefits in terms of communication and computational overhead required to setup the schedule. We propose a novel way of estimating the performance of scheduling approaches using the ratio of modulation time and propagation delay. We show the performance is largely dictated by this ratio, although the number of links to be scheduled also has a minor impact on the performance

Electrophysiologic assessment of (central) auditory processing disorder in children with non-syndromic cleft lip and/or palate

Session 5aPP - Psychological and Physiological Acoustics: Auditory Function, Mechanisms, and Models (Poster Session)Cleft of the lip and/or palate is a common congenital craniofacial malformation worldwide, particularly non-syndromic cleft lip and/or palate (NSCL/P). Though middle ear deficits in this population have been universally noted in numerous studies, other auditory problems including inner ear deficits or cortical dysfunction are rarely reported. A higher prevalence of educational problems has been noted in children with NSCL/P compared to craniofacially normal children. These high level cognitive difficulties cannot be entirely attributed to peripheral hearing loss. Recently it has been suggested that children with NSCLP may be more prone to abnormalities in the auditory cortex. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether school age children with (NSCL/P) have a higher prevalence of indications of (central) auditory processing disorder [(C)APD] compared to normal age matched controls when assessed using auditory event-related potential (ERP) techniques. School children (6 to 15 years) with NSCL/P and normal controls with matched age and gender were recruited. Auditory ERP recordings included auditory brainstem response and late event-related potentials, including the P1-N1-P2 complex and P300 waveforms. Initial findings from the present study are presented and their implications for further research in this area —and clinical intervention—are outlined. © 2012 Acoustical Society of Americapublished_or_final_versio

Ecosystem Monitoring and Port Surveillance Systems

International audienceIn this project, we should build up a novel system able to perform a sustainable and long term monitoring coastal marine ecosystems and enhance port surveillance capability. The outcomes will be based on the analysis, classification and the fusion of a variety of heterogeneous data collected using different sensors (hydrophones, sonars, various camera types, etc). This manuscript introduces the identified approaches and the system structure. In addition, it focuses on developed techniques and concepts to deal with several problems related to our project. The new system will address the shortcomings of traditional approaches based on measuring environmental parameters which are expensive and fail to provide adequate large-scale monitoring. More efficient monitoring will also enable improved analysis of climate change, and provide knowledge informing the civil authority's economic relationship with its coastal marine ecosystems

UAN: underwater acoustic network

Acoustic networks are for underwater what wifi is for terrestrial networks. The ocean is a nearly perfect media for acoustic waves in which regards long range propagation but poses a number of challenges in terms of available bandwidth, Doppler spread and channel fading. These limitations originate in the physical properties of the ocean, namely its anisotropy and boundary interaction which are particularly relevant in coastal waters where acoustic propagation becomes predominantly de- pendent on seafloor and sea surface properties. The acoustic communication channel is therefore multipath dominated and time and Doppler spread variable. The problem is aggravated when involving moving receivers as for instance when attempting to establish communication with or between moving autonomous underwater vehicles. The EU-funded project UAN - Underwater Acoustic Network aims at conceiving, developing and testing at sea an innovative and operational concept for integrating in a unique communication system submerged, surface and aerial sensors with the objective of protecting off-shore and coastline critical infrastructures. UAN went through various phases, including the development of hardware and software specific components, its testing independently and then in an integrated fashion, both in the lab and at sea. This paper reports on the project concept and vision as well as on the progress of its various development phases and the results obtained herein. At the time of writing, a final project sea trial is being planned and will take place two weeks before the conference so, although here we will concentrate on the progress obtained so far, the presentation at the conference may include additional results depending on the outcome of the sea trial

Implementation Adaptive Decision Feedback Equalizer for Time-Reversal Communication in Shallow Water Environment

Underwater wireless communications are growing very fast along with human needs for applications such as defense, state security, underwater control and monitoring systems. Until now, an acoustic signal is a practical way to achieve long distance communication in the ocean. However, the underwater acoustic channel faces many challenges including limited available bandwidth, long delays, time-variability, and Doppler-spread. These challenges can reduce the reliability of the communication system and the achievement of high data-rate becomes a challenge. Adaptive decision feedback equalization is a method to compensate for the distortion of information signals on the underwater acoustic channel. On the other hand, time reversal is an effective method of overcoming intersymbol interference (ISI) problems which is the effect of multipath phenomena in underwater channels. Spatial focusing on time reversal can reduce the co-existing system disturbances and its temporal focusing makes the received power concentrated within a few taps so that the equalizer design work becomes much simpler. The temporal focusing can also increase the transmission rate. This paper shows that the combination of time reversal and adaptive DFE (TR-DFE) has superior performance than TR and DFE itself. By modifying the step-size parameters in the adaptive DFE, the TR-DFE level of convergence and performance can be improved. The geometry-based modeling which is used proves that distance and multipath variation greatly affect the quality of time reversal communication on the underwater acoustic channel