Performance Analysis and Rapid Prediction of Long-Range Underwater Acoustic Communications in Uncertain Deep-Sea Environments
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摘要: 在复杂且动态变化的海洋环境中,通信性能起伏显著且难以预估,传统依赖反馈链路进行信道状态估计与参数调整的方法难以适用于深海远程水声通信。为此,该文提出一种基于深度学习声场不确定预估的水声通信性能分析与快速预报方法,在无反馈条件下实现通信参数与信道状态的高效匹配。该方法基于深度学习快速预测的传播损失概率分布,构建了从传播损失到信噪比,再到统计信道容量与中断容量的链式映射模型,实现环境不确定性与通信性能的量化映射。进一步结合典型深海单载波通信系统在特定信道条件下的链路性能与传播损失的统计特性,提出通信“速率—可靠性”预报方法,评估不同速率下的可靠通信概率,从而为复杂动态环境下的系统参数匹配提供依据。海上试验结果表明,所提方法在复杂信道环境下对通信“速率—可靠性”的预报与实测结果高度一致:会聚区与影区各速率点上的可靠概率偏差分别为0.9%~4%和1%~9%;以90%可靠通信概率为阈值时,预报的最大可靠速率与实测结果一致,验证了该方法在深海远程水声通信中的准确性和实用性。Abstract:
Objective In complex and dynamically varying deep-sea environments, underwater acoustic communication performance exhibits significant fluctuations. Feedback-based methods for channel state estimation and parameter adaptation become impractical in long-range deep-sea communications, as platform constraints hinder the establishment of reliable feedback channels and the slow propagation speed of sound introduces substantial feedback latency. In typical long-range underwater acoustic communication scenarios, the dynamic variability of the ocean environment is often ignored, and communication parameters are selected heuristically. As a result, these parameters are frequently mismatched with actual channel conditions, leading to communication failures or reduced efficiency. Therefore, it is essential to develop predictive methodologies capable of assessing communication performance in advance and enabling feed-forward adjustment of system parameters. The primary objective of this paper is to develop a deep-learning-based framework for performance analysis and rapid prediction of long-range underwater acoustic communications under uncertain deep-sea environmental conditions, thereby enabling efficient and reliable parameter–channel matching without relying on feedback. Methods A feed-forward underwater acoustic communication performance analysis and rapid forecasting method enabled by deep-learning-based sound-field uncertainty prediction is proposed in this paper. First, a neural network is employed to estimate the probability distributions of transmission loss (TL PDFs) at the receiver under dynamically varying ocean environments. Based on the predicted TL PDFs, the corresponding probability distributions of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR PDFs) is derived, forming the basis for evaluating communication performance without relying on real-time feedback. Subsequently, the statistical channel capacity and outage capacity in dynamic environments are analyzed, enabling the characterization of the theoretical upper limits of communication rates in dynamic environments. Finally, by integrating the SNR distribution with the bit-error-rate characteristics of a representative deep-sea single-carrier communication system under specific channel, a rate–reliability prediction model is developed. This model estimates the probability of reliable communication at various data rates, offering a practical tool for forecasting link performance in highly dynamic and feedback-limited underwater acoustic scenarios. Results and Discussions The proposed method is validated using both simulation data and sea trial data The TL PDFs predicted by the deep learning model exhibit strong agreement with traditional Monte Carlo(MC) method across multiple receiver locations ( Fig.6 ). Under identical computational settings, the deep-learning-based prediction of the TL PDFs reduces the computation time by 2 to 3 orders of magnitude compared with MC method. The chained mapping from TL PDFs to SNR PDFs and further to channel capacity metrics accurately captures the probabilistic nature of communication performance under uncertain environmental conditions (Fig.7 and8 ). The rate–reliable communication probability curves derived from the TL PDFs predicted by the deep learning model are highly consistent with the results obtained using the MC-based approach. In the high sound-intensity region, the prediction errors for the reliable communication probabilities across different data rates range from 0.1% to 3% compared with the MC-based results, while in the low sound-intensity region the errors are approximately 0.3% to 5% (Fig.12 ).Furthermore, the results from the sea trials indicate that the predicted rate–reliability performance is in good agreement with the measured data. In the convergence zone, the deviations between the predicted and measured reliability probabilities at each data rate range from 0.9% to 4%, while in the shadow zone, the deviations range from 1% to 9%(Fig.18 ). Moreover, under a 90% reliability requirement, the maximum achievable reliable communication rates predicted by the method are consistent with the measurements in both the convergence zone and shadow zone, demonstrating the accuracy and practical applicability of the proposed approach in complex channel environments.Conclusions A deep-learning-based framework for performance analysis and rapid prediction of long-range underwater acoustic communications under uncertain deep-sea environments is proposed and validated. The framework establishes a chained mapping from environmental parameters to TL PDFs, SNR PDFs, and communication performance metrics, enabling quantitative assessment of capacity under dynamic ocean conditions. Accurate prediction of communication “rate–reliability” profiles is enabled by the integration of the performance of a representative deep-sea single-carrier communication system under specific channel conditions and probabilistic propagation characteristics, providing guidance for parameter selection without requiring feedback. Sea trial results confirm the high consistency between predicted and measured outcomes, demonstrating the method’s accuracy and practical applicability. The proposed approach provides a new technical pathway for feed-forward performance analysis, dynamic system adaptation of deep-sea long-range underwater acoustic communication systems, and it can be extended to other communication scenarios in dynamic ocean environments. -
表 1 通信系统采用的调制编码方案
方案m 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 调制阶数 2 2 2 2 2 4 4 4 4 8 8 8 16 16 16 编码码率 1/4 1/2 2/3 3/4 5/6 1/2 2/3 3/4 5/6 2/3 3/4 5/6 2/3 3/4 5/6 速率(bps) 17 34 45 50 56 67 89 100 112 135 150 167 177 200 222 表 2 试验参数
试验
参数接收机采样频率
(kHz)信号带宽
(Hz)中心频率
(Hz)通信距离
(km)符号宽度
(ms)发射声源级
(dB)发射深度
(m)信号长度
(bit)通信速率
(bps)取值 4 100 500 72.6km 15 190 500 192 20、25、
50、100、200 -
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