Investigation of VBLAST Equalization Technique for Underwater Acoustic Communications

Underwater Acoustic Communications (UWAC) is an emerging technology in the field of underwater communications, and it is challenging because of the signal attenuation of the sound waves. Multiple Input and Multiple- Output (MIMO) is introduced in UWAC because of its support in enhancing the data throughput even under the conditions of interference, signal fading, and multipath. The paper presents the concept and analysis of 2 × 2 MIMO UWAC systems that uses a 4 - QAM spatial modulation scheme thus minimizing the decoding complexity and overcoming the Inter Channel Interference (IChI). Bit Error Rate (BER) investigation is carried out over different link distances under acoustic Line of Sight (LOS). The utilization of Zero Forcing (ZF) and Vertical-Bell Laboratories Layered Space-Time (VBLAST) equalizers, which estimates the transmitted data proves a success of removing Inter Symbol Interference (ISI). The ISI caused due to multipath effect and scattering in UWAC can be reduced by iterative process considered in VBLAST. A study is made on how the distance between the transmitter and the receiver and the Doppler Effect has its impact on the performance of the system.