Experimental Result for a High-rate Underwater Acoustic Communication in Deep Sea for a Manned Submersible SHINKAI6500

Abstract

Last year, a high-data-rate digital underwater acoustic mobile communication experiment was conducted in the dep sea water (DSW) of the north and south area of Suruga Bay, Japan. The acoustic communication signal, which utilized a single-carrier modulation, was transmitted from an acoustic source (15–25 kHz) on a manned vehicle moving in DSW to a surface-vessel. Initial data analysis demonstrates that a maximum data rate of 70 kbps could be achieved over a 3.6 km range using 128 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), which far exceeds the performance of past published experimental results and commercial acoustic modems.