A Stratified Acoustic Model Accounting for Phase Shifts for Underwater Acoustic Networks

doi:10.3390/s130506183

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Sensors 2013, 13(5), 6183-6203; doi:10.3390/s130506183

Article

A Stratified Acoustic Model Accounting for Phase Shifts for Underwater Acoustic Networks

Ping Wang¹, Lin Zhang^1,* and Victor O. K. Li²

¹ Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China ² Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received: 6 March 2013; in revised form: 22 April 2013 / Accepted: 24 April 2013 / Published: 13 May 2013

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Last Trends in Acoustic Sensing)

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Abstract: Accurate acoustic channel models are critical for the study of underwater acoustic networks. Existing models include physics-based models and empirical approximation models. The former enjoy good accuracy, but incur heavy computational load, rendering them impractical in large networks. On the other hand, the latter are computationally inexpensive but inaccurate since they do not account for the complex effects of boundary reflection losses, the multi-path phenomenon and ray bending in the stratified ocean medium. In this paper, we propose a Stratified Acoustic Model (SAM) based on frequency-independent geometrical ray tracing, accounting for each ray’s phase shift during the propagation. It is a feasible channel model for large scale underwater acoustic network simulation, allowing us to predict the transmission loss with much lower computational complexity than the traditional physics-based models. The accuracy of the model is validated via comparisons with the experimental measurements in two different oceans. Satisfactory agreements with the measurements and with other computationally intensive classical physics-based models are demonstrated.

Keywords: transmission loss prediction; stratified acoustic model; geometrical ray tracing; phase shifts

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MDPI and ACS Style

Wang, P.; Zhang, L.; Li, V.O.K. A Stratified Acoustic Model Accounting for Phase Shifts for Underwater Acoustic Networks. Sensors 2013, 13, 6183-6203.

AMA Style

Wang P, Zhang L, Li VOK. A Stratified Acoustic Model Accounting for Phase Shifts for Underwater Acoustic Networks. Sensors. 2013; 13(5):6183-6203.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Wang, Ping; Zhang, Lin; Li, Victor O.K. 2013. "A Stratified Acoustic Model Accounting for Phase Shifts for Underwater Acoustic Networks." Sensors 13, no. 5: 6183-6203.

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