Analysis of a Linear Multihop Underwater Acoustic Network

In this paper, a multihop underwater acoustic line network, which consists of a series of equal-distance hops connected by relay transceivers in a tandem, is considered. Messages are originated as coded packets from a source node at one end, relayed sequentially hop by hop (decoded and re-encoded), and finally received by a destination node at the other end of the network. Several key characteristics of underwater acoustic channels, namely, frequency-dependent signal attenuation and noise, interhop interference, half-duplex modem constraint, and large propagation delay, are taken into account in the analysis. Simple transmission protocols with spatial reuse and periodic transmit/receive schedule are considered. Performance bounds and scheduling design are developed to satisfy the half-duplex constraint on relay transceivers in the presence of long propagation delay. To efficiently cope with frequency-dependent channel characteristic and interhop interference, the power spectral density (PSD) of the signaling is analytically optimized in a way analogous to water filling. Furthermore, the problem of determining the minimum number of hops to support a prespecified rate and reliability with and without a maximum coded packet length constraint is examined. Finally, numerical results are presented to illustrate the analysis.

[1]  Urbashi Mitra,et al.  Cooperative multihop communication for underwater acoustic networks , 2006, WUWNet '06.

[2]  R. Gallager.  Information Theory and Reliable Communication , 1968 .

[3]  Christina Fragouli,et al.  Scaling Laws for Line Networks: From Zero-Error to Min-Cut Capacity , 2006, 2006 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory.

[4]  M. Stojanovic,et al.  Underwater Acoustic Communications: Design Considerations on the Physical Layer , 2008, 2008 Fifth Annual Conference on Wireless on Demand Network Systems and Services.

[5]  M.J. Ryan,et al.  On the Benefits of High Absorption in Practical Multi-hop Networks , 2007, OCEANS 2007 - Europe.

[6]  Wanshi Chen,et al.  Packet Scheduling for Multihopped Underwater Acoustic Communication Networks , 2007, OCEANS 2007.

[7]  Martin Haenggi,et al.  Bandwidth- and power-efficient routing in linear wireless networks , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory.

[8]  Hui Chen,et al.  Analyzing the Performance of Multi-hop Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks , 2007, OCEANS 2007 - Europe.

[9]  Urbashi Mitra,et al.  Analysis of a simple multihop underwater acoustic network , 2008, Underwater Networks.

[10]  Edward C. Posner,et al.  The capacity of digital links in tandem , 1984, IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory.

[11]  M. Stojanovic,et al.  Distributed Space-Time Cooperative Schemes for Underwater Acoustic Communications , 2006, OCEANS 2006 - Asia Pacific.

[12]  Milica Stojanovic,et al.  On the relationship between capacity and distance in an underwater acoustic communication channel , 2007, MOCO.

[13]  Urbashi Mitra,et al.  Multihopping Strategies: An Error-Exponent Comparison , 2007, 2007 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory.

[14]  Abbas El Gamal,et al.  Capacity theorems for the relay channel , 1979, IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory.

[15]  Urbashi Mitra,et al.  Error propagation analysis for underwater cooperative multi-hop communications , 2009, Ad Hoc Networks.

[16]  Urbashi Mitra,et al.  A delay-reliability analysis for multihop underwater acoustic communication , 2007, WuWNet '07.

[17]  Thomas M. Cover,et al.  Elements of Information Theory , 2005 .

[18]  M. Stojanovic.  Capacity of a Relay Acoustic Channel , 2007, OCEANS 2007.

[19]  Shu Lin,et al.  Error Control Coding , 2004 .

[20]  Charles A Desoer.  Communication through channels in cascade , 1953 .

[21]  Theodore S. Rappaport,et al.  Wireless communications - principles and practice , 1996 .