A High-Performance Communication Platform for Ultrasonic Applications

Ultrasonic signals are used for communications in an environment when propagation of electromagnetic waves is not feasible. For example, ultrasonic signals are often used as the carrier information for underwater communication since such environments cause very high attenuation for electromagnetic waves. This paper presents two experimental system configurations for examining and characterizing the physical layer of ultrasonic communications. A modular system configuration and a Software Defined Ultrasonic Communication (SDUC) platform are separately researched and developed in order to demonstrate the capability and performance of these configurations. The modular system design is based on typical laboratory test equipment to study the behavior of ultrasonic propagation in the solid communication channels. The SDUC platform is developed based on the ZYNQ SoC to make the system more portable, energy efficient and reconfigurable. Experiments are conducted to evaluate the ultrasonic communication in solid channels with different modulation methods.