Channel characterization for underwater electric conduction communications systems

The underwater electric conduction channel characteristics, such as the path loss and time dispersion, are obtained from a channel measurement campaign in open sea waters. A distance-frequency dependent path loss model is developed for frequencies up to 1.2 MHz and distances up to 5 m. The mean and rms excess delay spread, maximum excess delay and coherence bandwidth are obtained for systems that utilize 100 kHz, 550 kHz and 750 kHz bandwidths. Lastly, implications of the channel characteristics to digital communications design are discussed.