Dolphin Sounds-Inspired Covert Underwater Acoustic Communication and Micro-Modem

Sensors (Basel). 2017 Oct 25;17(11):2447. doi: 10.3390/s17112447.

Authors

Gang Qiao^{1

2}, Yunjiang Zhao^{3

4}, Songzuo Liu^{5

6}, Muhammad Bilal^{7

8}

Affiliations

¹ Acoustic Science and Technology Laboratory, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China. qiaogang@hrbeu.edu.cn.
² College of Underwater Acoustic Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China. qiaogang@hrbeu.edu.cn.
³ Acoustic Science and Technology Laboratory, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China. zhaoyunjiang@hrbeu.edu.cn.
⁴ College of Underwater Acoustic Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China. zhaoyunjiang@hrbeu.edu.cn.
⁵ Acoustic Science and Technology Laboratory, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China. liusongzuo@hotmail.com.
⁶ College of Underwater Acoustic Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China. liusongzuo@hotmail.com.
⁷ Acoustic Science and Technology Laboratory, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China. bilal@hrbeu.edu.cn.
⁸ College of Underwater Acoustic Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China. bilal@hrbeu.edu.cn.

Abstract

A novel portable underwater acoustic modem is proposed in this paper for covert communication between divers or underwater unmanned vehicles (UUVs) and divers at a short distance. For the first time, real dolphin calls are used in the modem to realize biologically inspired Covert Underwater Acoustic Communication (CUAC). A variety of dolphin whistles and clicks stored in an SD card inside the modem helps to realize different biomimetic CUAC algorithms based on the specified covert scenario. In this paper, the information is conveyed during the time interval between dolphin clicks. TMS320C6748 and TLV320AIC3106 are the core processors used in our unique modem for fast digital processing and interconnection with other terminals or sensors. Simulation results show that the bit error rate (BER) of the CUAC algorithm is less than 10 - 5 when the signal to noise ratio is over ‒5 dB. The modem was tested in an underwater pool, and a data rate of 27.1 bits per second at a distance of 10 m was achieved.

Keywords: bionic; covert; dolphin sounds; micro-modem; underwater acoustic communication; underwater acoustic modem.