Underwater Acoustic Noise Model for Shallow Water Communications

This article presents an empirical model for the noise of the acoustic underwater channel in shallow water from the analysis of field data measurements. A probability density function for the noise amplitude distribution is proposed and the associated likelihood functions are derived. As a result, an expression to the probability of symbol error for binary signaling is presented for the channel. Additionally, the results of simulations conducted using the field collected noise samples are presented, in order to verify the noise effect on the performance of underwater acoustic communication binary signaling systems.