A Signal Processing System for Underwater Acoustic ROV Communication

Abstract
A high performance system for communication with untethered underwater vehicles is presented. The system is centered around multiple digital processors which perform a variety of signal processing tasks. The processors are combined into an array using a flexible architecture designed for communication processing. A basic system has been tested at 5 kbit/sec over the Rayleigh-fading multipath channel in Woods Hole harbor. To combat the deleterious effects of the fluctuating ocean channel, a series of algorithms designed to produce low error-rate communication is being implemented on the array. The processing elements are INMOS T800 transputers and the number of transputers may be selected at deployment time to meet the requirements of a particular task. The result is a powerful and flexible architecture for underwater acoustic communication.

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