Underwater Acoustic Channel Enhancement Based on Diversity and Coding

In this paper, diversity techniques combined with the convolutional coding technique will be investigated in an underwater acoustic (UWA) environment. The proposed solution aims to mitigate the severity of UWA, leading to a reliable communication system suitable for many applications. The analysis based on the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) and Bit Error Rate (BER) to build a robust communication link is introduced using both modulation techniques Quadrature Phase Shift Keying modulation (QPSK) and 16-Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (16-QAM). The results show that at 10–
⁵
BER, coded maximal ratio combining (MRC) achieves a 5.5 dB gain compared to selection combining (SC), and an approximately 16 dB gain is achieved over the uncoded and nondiversity curves.