Performance analysis of direct-sequence spread-spectrum underwater acoustic communications with low signal-to-noise-ratio input signals

Direct-sequence spread-spectrum signals collected from the TREX04 experiment are analyzed to determine the bit-error-rate (BER) as a function of the input signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for a single receiver. A total of 1160 packets of data are generated by adding ambient noise data collected at sea to the signal data (in postprocessing) to create signals with different input-SNR, some as low as -15 dB. Two methods are analyzed in detail, both using a time-updated channel impulse-response estimate as a (matched) filter to mitigate the multipath-induced interferences. The first method requires an independent estimate of the time-varying channel impulse-response function; the second method uses the channel impulse-response estimated from the previous symbol as the matched filter. The first method yields an average BER <10(-2) for input-SNR as low as -12 dB and the second method yields a similar performance for input-SNR as low as -8 dB. The measured BERs are modeled using the measured signal amplitude fluctuation statistics and processing gain obtained by de-spreading the received signal with the transmitted code sequence. Performance losses caused by imprecise symbol synchronization at low input-SNR, uncertainty in channel estimation, and signal fading are quantitatively modeled and compared with data.     

变分模态分量降噪后重构的水声弱信号检测

针对能量检测法在低信噪比下对非合作水声探测信号的检测性能显著下降的问题,提出了一种组合变分模态分解和小波变换降噪重构的信号检测方法。以信号分解出的各个本征模态函数的近似熵与互相关系数比值作为分量分类参数,将所得分量分为信号分量、含噪信号分量与噪声分量,然后利用第二代小波变换对含噪信号分量降噪后与信号分量组成重构信号,最后对重构信号进行检测。数值仿真结果表明该方法可以在无先验信息的情况下对CW和LFM信号自适应降噪,信噪比0 dB以下时CW信号重构后信噪比提升约12 dB,宽带LFM信号信噪比提升约8～9 dB,有效提升了低虚警概率下信号的检测概率。湖试结果表明,虚警概率为0.1时检测概率可提升至0.9以上,验证了该方法的有效性。     

腐蚀声发射信号降噪方法

为了从复杂背景噪声中有效地检测出腐蚀声发射信号,采用短时分形维数和离散分数余弦变换相结合的降噪方法,利用声发射检测系统,对6% FeCl₃·6H₂O溶液中Q235钢板的全面腐蚀和局部腐蚀声发射信号进行了降噪处理。实验结果表明,腐蚀声发射信号分别加入白噪声、有色噪声和粉红噪声,在输入信噪比为0~15dB的条件下,此方法降噪效果与标准离散余弦、离散分数余弦变换方法相比,输出信噪比最高可提升8 dB。所述降噪方法对检测腐蚀声发射信号以及对金属剩余寿命的评价具有一定意义。      

Detection of multi-frequency weak signals with adaptive stochastic resonance system

Aiming at the poor detection rate of multi-frequency weak signals under a strong background of noise, a novel method based on adaptive stochastic resonance (SR) theory is proposed in this paper. The optimal parameters can be obtained automatically via measurement by establishing an adaptive SR system model and using the reverse location method. After passing through the adaptive SR system, the spectrum values of all eight signals greatly improve, the largest spectrum value gain increases from 12.41 to 2033 when the frequency is 0.01?Hz, which is an improvement of a factor of 162.8, and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gain of the whole system is 10.3134?dB. Under the condition of different input noise intensities and signal amplitudes, the mean SNR of the system increases from –13.1136 to –2.7614?dB, which is a 78.9% increase, and the largest SNR gain is 13.4702?dB when the noise intensity D?=?1.2 and signal amplitude A?=?0.11. Compared to the single optimal spectrum value, when defining multiple optimum spectrum values as the SNR criterion, the detection sensitivity is less than 0.35 when the input noise intensity is between 0.5 and 2.5, and the sensitivity value is 6.29 times higher when D?=?2.5. The system successfully realizes the adaptive detection of twelve weak signals, and the SNR gain is 7.9743?dB, which improves the channel capacity of signal detection. The experimental results demonstrate the high efficiency and strong applicability of the system, improving the signal processing efficiency and speed of signal transmission.     

Signal processing for noncoherent underwater acoustic communication approaching channel capacity

Noncoherent underwater acoustic communication channel in adverse conditions is modeled as a phase-random Rayleigh fading channel,and its capacity curve is derived.To approach the channel capacity curve,the concatenated code of the nonbinary LDPC code and the constant weight code is proposed for noncoherent communication which can late be iteratively decoded in the probability domain.Without information of channel amplitude or phase in the receiver,statistic parameters of the respective signal and noise bins were estimated based on the moment estimation method,the posterior probabilities of the constant weight code words were further calculated,and the nonbinary LDPC code was decoded with the nonbinary factor graph algorithm.It is verified by simulations that by utilizing the proposed concatenated code and its processing algorithm,gap to channel capacity curve is reduced by 3 dB when compared to the existing method.Underwater communication experiments were carried out in both deep ocean（vertical communication,5 km）and shallow lake（horizontal communication,near 3 km,delay spread larger than 50 ms）,in which the signal frequency band was 6 kHz to10 kHz,and the data transmission rate Was 357 bps.The proposed scheme can work properly in both experiments with a signal-to-noise ratio threshold of 2 dB.The performance of the proposed algorithm Was well verified by the experiments.     

接近非相干水声通信信道容量的信号处理算法

恶劣情况下的非相干水声通信信道模型为随机相位Rayleigh衰落,推导了该模型的信道容量曲线。为实现接近非相干信道容量的可靠通信,提出多进制低密度校验码(LDPC)和恒重码级联码的多进制非相干概率域迭代处理算法。在信道幅度和相位完全未知的情况下,根据矩估计得到信号和噪声频点幅度的统计参量,进而得到恒重码的码字后验概率,再对多进制LDPC码进行因子图迭代译码。仿真证明本算法与现有的最大能量检测非迭代译码算法相比,与信道容量曲线的差距从4.5dB缩小至1.5dB。给出了实际海试湖试通信效果,频段为6~10kHz,数据速率为357bps,海试时近似垂直通信距离为5km,湖试时水平通信距离近3km、多径超过50mS,两种情况下无差错通信的信噪比门限为2dB,验证了本算法的优势。      

Weak laser pulse signal amplification based on a fiber Brillouin amplifier

We propose a high-gain and frequency-selective amplifier for a weak optical signal based on stimulated Brillouin scattering in a single mode fiber. To be able to satisfy the needs of high gain and high signal-to-noise ratio laser pulse amplification, different fiber lengths and core diameters are used to fulfill this experiment. In the experiment, a 430 nW(peak power) pulsed signal is amplified by 70 dB with a signal-to-noise ratio of 14 dB. The small size, high gain, low cost, and low noise of the fiber Brillouin amplifier make it a promising weak signal amplification method for practical applications such as lidar.     

离散空间上的最小能量框架及其在矩形脉冲信号去噪中的应用研究

最小能量(小波)框架在信号处理领域有着广泛的应用前景,但目前只能应用在连续信号上.为解决这一问题,给出了离散信号空间上的最小能量框架的定义,并证明了它所具备的一些优良性质.在实际应用中,针对通信领域中的受加性高斯白噪声污染的二进制矩形脉冲信号提出一个新的去噪算法,利用离散空间上一个最小能量框架对接收波形的抽样离散数列进行去噪工作,获得了较好的处理效果.仿真结果表明,如果利用该算法对接收波形进行去噪预处理,则接收机可以降低误码率,在信噪比4 dB 处获得了3.4 dB的性能增益. 关键词： 离散信号空间 最小能量(小波)框架 二进制矩形脉冲信号 去噪     

Fundamentals of optical amplifiers

The minimum noise figure of linear phase-insensitive amplifiers is 3 dB, according to the constraint of the uncertainty principle. Laser amplifiers, parametric amplifiers and Raman amplifiers obey the general quantum limit in an ideal case. A degenerate parametric amplifier is a phase-sensitive linear amplifier, and thus is a noiseless amplifier with a noise figure of 0 dB. The noise figure degradation in a practical amplifier and the signal-to-noise ratio design of an optical amplifier system are presented. Several other amplifier characteristics, such as signal gain, frequency bandwidth and saturation output power, are also discussed.     

Brillouin-based fiber-optic distributed temperature sensor with optical preamplification

Optical preamplification has been used in a fiber-optic distributed temperature sensor based on spontaneous Brillouin scattering and the use of direct detection, resulting in improved signal-to-noise ratios. The fiber-based optical preamplifier system comprises a three-port circulator, an erbium-doped fiber amplifier with a small-signal gain of 27 dB, and a fiber Bragg grating with 47-GHz bandwidth. An improvement of 17 dB in the optical signal-to-noise ratio for the Brillouin signal is demonstrated in a 23-km sensor. The limit to the signal-to-noise ratio is attributed to spontaneous-spontaneous beat noise generated at the photodetector by amplified spontaneous emission from the optical amplifier.     

基于单矢量差分能量检测器的扩频水声通信

通过获得扩频处理增益, 直接序列扩频水声通信系统具有较高的稳定性, 是高质量水声通信及远程水声通信的首选通信方式. 但复杂的海洋环境使得直扩系统在解扩时受到载波相位跳变的影响, 这将导致直扩系统的扩频处理增益下降. 为此, 本文针对直扩系统提出了差分能量检测器算法, 通过比较接收端相关器输出能量完成解码, 并与有源平均声强器算法相结合, 提出单矢量差分能量检测器算法. 该算法具有很好的抗载波相位跳变和多途扩展干扰的能力, 并可对信号方位信息实时跟踪估计, 利用估计方位进行矢量组合可获得矢量处理增益, 从而保证直扩系统可以在低信噪比、时变信道条件下稳定工作. 通过仿真分析和大连海试试验, 验证了本文提出的单矢量差分能量检测器算法的有效性和稳健性.     

低信噪比下公共场所异常声音声学特征提取

为了实现低信噪比下公共场所异常声音声学特征提取,提出经验小波滤波器组用于提取异常声音声学特征。首先,根据等效矩形带宽的人耳听觉特性,得到各滤波器的中心频率,计算出经验小波滤波器组的边界。然后,将边界代入经验小波细节函数和尺度函数中,形成经验小波滤波器组。最后,用经验小波滤波器组分解低信噪比下公共场所异常声音,经分解的各模态归一化对数能量作为异常声音声学特征,用于分类识别。相关实验表明,提出的经验小波滤波器组与典型的语音信号处理及时频信号处理方法相比,在低信噪比(0 dB)的商店、银行、办公室、自动取款机环境下,对异常声音的平均识别率提高了4.75%~37.92%,验证了提出方法的有效性。      

Adverse Effects of Environmental Noise on Acoustic Voice Quality Measurements

An accurate analysis of voice quality is imperative when using acoustic measurements to diagnose vocal pathologies. It is known that noise has a significant effect on the reliability and validity of acoustic voice measurements, but the precise relationship has not been established. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of noise on the accuracy, reliability, and validity of acoustic voice quality measurements while balancing for gender, age, intersubject and intrasubject variability, microphones, computer hardware, analysis software, and type of noise. Level of noise was precisely controlled. The specific focus of interest was to determine the critical levels of noise that can invalidate voice quality measurements and to generate practical recommendations. Results suggest that the recommended, acceptable, and unacceptable levels of noise in the acoustic environment are above 42 dB, above 30 dB, and below 30 dB signal-to-noise ratio, respectively.     

Underwater source detection using a spatial stationarity test

The problem of detecting a source in shallow water is addressed. The complexity of such a propagation channel makes precise modeling practically impossible. This lack of accuracy causes a deterioration in the performance of the optimal detector and motivates the search for suboptimal detectors which are insensitive to uncertainties in the propagation model. A novel, robust detector which measures the degree of spatial stationarity of a received field is presented. It exploits the fact that a signal propagating in a bounded channel induces spatial nonstationarity to a higher degree than mere background noise. The performance of the proposed detector is evaluated using both simulated data and experimental data collected in the Mediterranean Sea. This performance is compared to those of three other detectors, employing different extents of prior information. It is shown that when the propagation channel is not completely known, as is the case of the experimental data, the novel detector outperforms the others in terms of threshold signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In the presence of environmental mismatch, the threshold SNR of the novel detector for the experimental data appears 2-5 dB lower than the other detectors. That is, this detector couples good performance with robustness to propagation uncertainties.     

双向抽运拉曼光纤放大器性能的研究

对双向抽运拉曼光纤放大器(RFA)的噪声特性、增益饱和及抽运功率转换效率进行了详细研究。结果表明,双向抽运拉曼光纤放大器的噪声特性介于前向抽运与后向抽运之间,但主要取决于前向抽运方式所导致的噪声特性;双向抽运方式的饱和功率低于单向抽运方式的饱和功率,同前向抽运与后向抽运提供的增益比例有关;双向抽运方式的抽运功率转换效率同信号光功率及前、后向抽运提供的增益有关,当信号光功率较低时,增加前向抽运的比例可取得较高的抽运功率转换效率,而信号光功率较高时,增加后向抽运的比例可取得较高的抽运功率转换效率。研究一种配置(情况3)的双向抽运拉曼光纤放大器,可以完全补偿100km传输线路的损耗(包括无源器件的损耗),最低光信噪比为30．21dB。     

Covert underwater acoustic communications

Low probability of detection (LPD) communications are conducted at a low received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) to deter eavesdroppers to sense the presence of the transmitted signal. Successful detection at intended receiver heavily relies on the processing gain achieved by employing the direct-sequence spread-spectrum (DSSS) technique. For scenarios that lack a sufficiently low SNR to maintain LPD, another metric, referred to as low probability of interception (LPI), is of interest to protect the privacy of the transmitted information. If covert communications take place in underwater acoustic (UWA) environments, then additional challenges are present. The time-varying nature of the UWA channel prevents the employment of a long spreading waveform. Furthermore, UWA environments are frequency-selective channels with long memory, which imposes challenges to the design of the spreading waveform. In this paper, a covert UWA communication system that adopts the DSSS technique and a coherent RAKE receiver is investigated. Emphasis is placed on the design of a spreading waveform that not only accounts for the transceiver structure and frequency-selective nature of the UWA channel, but also possesses a superior LPI. The proposed techniques are evaluated using both simulated and SPACE'08 in-water experimental data.     

Estimation of the detection range of a hydroacoustic system based on the acoustic power flux receiver

Approaches to estimating the detection range of systems based on vector receivers are considered. The approaches rely on a detailed analysis of the process of signal’s acoustic power flux formation in the presence of ambient sea noise and uncover the signal information parameters at the receiver output that provide the required statistically confident range of weak signal detection under these conditions. Based on the sonar equations and the known fundamental relationships between the outputs of a pressure receiver and a vector receiver for signal and noise, estimates of the maximum possible gain in the detection range of an acoustic power flux receiver are considered as a function of anisotropy of the ambient noise field in the area.     

Binaural speech intelligibility in noise for hearing-impaired listeners

The effect of head-induced interaural time delay (ITD) and interaural level differences (ILD) on binaural speech intelligibility in noise was studied for listeners with symmetrical and asymmetrical sensorineural hearing losses. The material, recorded with a KEMAR manikin in an anechoic room, consisted of speech, presented from the front (0 degree), and noise, presented at azimuths of 0 degree, 30 degrees, and 90 degrees. Derived noise signals, containing either only ITD or only ILD, were generated using a computer. For both groups of subjects, speech-reception thresholds (SRT) for sentences in noise were determined as a function of: (1) noise azimuth, (2) binaural cue, and (3) an interaural difference in overall presentation level, simulating the effect of a monaural hearing acid. Comparison of the mean results with corresponding data obtained previously from normal-hearing listeners shows that the hearing impaired have a 2.5 dB higher SRT in noise when both speech and noise are presented from the front, and 2.6-5.1 dB less binaural gain when the noise azimuth is changed from 0 degree to 90 degrees. The gain due to ILD varies among the hearing-impaired listeners between 0 dB and normal values of 7 dB or more. It depends on the high-frequency hearing loss at the side presented with the most favorable signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio. The gain due to ITD is nearly normal for the symmetrically impaired (4.2 dB, compared with 4.7 dB for the normal hearing), but only 2.5 dB in the case of asymmetrical impairment. When ITD is introduced in noise already containing ILD, the resulting gain is 2-2.5 dB for all groups. The only marked effect of the interaural difference in overall presentation level is a reduction of the gain due to ILD when the level at the ear with the better S/N ratio is decreased. This implies that an optimal monaural hearing aid (with a moderate gain) will hardly interfere with unmasking through ITD, while it may increase the gain due to ILD by preventing or diminishing threshold effects.     

Enhanced structure of a double-pass erbium-doped fiber amplifier for multiple wavelength amplifications

We demonstrate an enhanced double-pass erbium-doped fiber amplifier for multichannel amplification. The multichannel selection is formed by combining a demultiplexer and a multiplexer together in the fiber-loop mirror. The structure is able to filter out the amplified spontaneous emission that saturates the amplifier gain in the small signal regime. The maximum average gain of 47.2 dB is obtained with a gain enhancement of 12.8 dB at a ?50-dBm signal power per channel. The noise figure penalty is almost negligible for a signal power per channel of less than ?15 dBm.     

基于数字相干叠加的相干光正交频分复用系统中光纤非线性容忍性研究

光正交频分复用系统中的光纤非线性效应制约着系统进一步的扩容. 针对此问题, 提出一种数字相干叠加的方法, 用于提高相干光正交频分复用系统对光纤非线性的容忍性. 仿真中, 5通道的波分复用下偏振复用相干光正交频分复用系统的每个通道传输四进制正交振幅调制映射的71.53 Gbit/s信号在光纤中传输400 km. 首先, 通道间隔为25 GHz, 与传统相干光正交频分复用系统相比, 色散补偿前后, 使用数字相干叠加的相干光正交频分复用系统的信噪比分别提升了6.02 dB和9.05 dB, 最佳入纤光功率均增大了2 dB; 其次, 通道间隔为50 GHz, 色散补偿前后, 信噪比分别提升了4.9 dB和8.75 dB. 通过理论推导及仿真, 验证了所提方法能有效消除相干光正交频分复用系统的一阶非线性失真, 进而提高系统对光纤非线性的容忍性.