Underwater acoustic communication (UAC) system designers tend to transmit as much information as possible, per unit of time, at as low as possible error rate. However, the bit rate achieved in UAC systems is much lower than for wire or radio-communication systems. This is due to disadvantageous properties of the UAC channels, namely the sea and inland waters. Estimation of UAC channel transmission properties is possible within...

Nowadays, there are two leading sea sounding technologies: the multibeam echo sounder and the multiphase echo sounder (also known as phase-dierence side scan sonar or bathymetric side scan sonar). Both solutions have their advantages and disadvantages, and they can be perceived as complementary to each other. The article reviews the development of interferometric echo sounding array configurations and the various methods applied...

A signal transmitted in an Underwater Acoustic Communication (UAC) system operating in a shallow-water channel suffers from strong time dispersion due to multipath propagation. This causes the Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI) observed in the received signal, which significantly limits the communication system’s reliability and transmission rate. In such propagation conditions, the Direct-Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) method is...