Channel Coding for

Underwater Acoustic Communication System

Andre Goalic*, Joel Trubuil* and Nicolas Beuzelin** *ENST-Bretagne, BP 83818, 29238 Brest Cedex 3, France **G.E.S.M.A. (Groupe d'Etudes Sous-Marines de l'Atlantique), BP 42, 29240 Naval Brest, France
Abstract-GESMA (Groupe d'Etudes Sous-Marines de l'Atlantique) objective is to develop a sufficiently robust acoustic link allowing the transmission of different information (text, images...). A real-time platform named TRIDENT (TRansmission d'Images et de Donnes EN Temps reel) was designed at ENST Bretagne. A blind spatio-temporal equalizer is used to reduce the various perturbations brought by the underwater acoustic channel (UWA). The acoustic link performances was evaluated and shown its robustness for transmission in a strongly disturbed channel. GESMA also wants to increase the link reliability and provides strongly protected low bit rate speech (MELP, 2400 bps) transmission. In order to do so, a channel coding will be added to the system. Different kinds of error correcting scheme will be tested including Convolutional Codes (CC) and Reed Solomon (RS) block code. A Differential Phase-Shift Keying (DPSK) is used to solve phase ambiguities in case of CC coding and Viterbi decoding utilization. Keywords-Underwater acoustic communication, Channel coding, Convolutional code, Reed Solomon code, BER (Bit Error Rate), MELP (Mixed Error Linear Prediction).

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Fig. 1. TRIDENT Platform

I. INTRODUCTION

Since a few years, GESMA (Groupe d'Etudes Sous-Marines de l'Atlantique), in collaboration with ENST Bretagne and SERCEL, is developing a robust underwater acoustic link to improve vehicles autonomy. An acoustic transmission usually is corrupted by different impacts brought about by the underwater channel. One can note multipath propagation, Doppler effect and noise. From another point of view, carrier frequency and available bandwidth are much lower than those existing in other communication channels. To mitigate these different effects and optimize spectral efficiency, a blind spatio-temporal equalizer introduced by J. Labat et al [1], [2] was chosen.
A real time prototype was designed at ENST Bretagne. This prototype named TRIDENT [3] (TRansmission d'Images et de Donnes EN Temps reel) is an acoustic link able to transmit images, text and data. With such a platform, information can be transmitted at a data rate higher than 20 kbps in horizontal configuration without periodic and training sequences. The Equalizer has already shown its robustness and reliability to struggle against strongly disturbed channel. Moreover, speech transmission were successfully realized with a 6 Kbps speech coder in Brest bay over 2 km. GESMA also wants to increase the link reliability and provide strongly protected burst transmission for AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle).

Viterbi decoding utilization, a Differential Phase-Shift Keying (DPSK) is used to solve phase ambiguities. In order to provide extra ranges over 4 km for speech transmission, another low bit rate speech coder, named Mixed Excited Linear Prediction (MELP, 2400 bits/s) [4] is under consideration. This paper aims to highlight some aspect of the high data rate acoustic link. Firstly, we present the TRIDENT platform with the different extensions. Secondly, different channel coding strategies are described. Then, we present main characteristics of the low bit rate speech coder/decoder (2400 bits/s, MELP) under consideration for TRIDENT extension. The last part will present some preliminary results.
II. TRIDENT ACOUSTIC SYSTEM

Optimized Configuration - Multiple Input - Decision Feedback Equalizer) [1]. The SOC-MI-DFE uses input signals sampled on several sensors coming from the same emission source. This space diversity provides a better SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) compared to a mono-sensor version. The SOC-MI-DFE is able to run according to two modes: a convergence or starting mode and a tracking mode which are differentiated both on structural and algorithmic levels. Switching between the modes are carried out in an automatic and reversible way by comparison of the MSE (Mean Square Error) with a threshold. The interest of this adaptivity lies in the possibility to switch from one structure to another according to the channel severity. Moreover, it is not necessary to use preamble or another training sequence. the is to choose channel abilities able Now, purpose coding to correct residual errors and thus adds extra improvements in In fact, only user data are transmitted and spectral efficiency is Bit Error Rates (BER). In order to do so, two kinds of chan- increased. nel coding are evaluated (Convolutional Coding (CC) and Reed Solomon (RS) block). In case of Convolutional Coding and The TRIDENT platform (Fig. 1) can use two carrier fre-

The TRIDENT system is a high data rate acoustic link based on blind spatio-temporal equalizer called SOC-MI-DFE (Self

1-4244-01 15-1/06/$20.00 2006 IEEE

quency (20 and 35 kHz). The bit rate under consideration are from 6.7 to 23.3 kbps with a QPSK modulation (Quadrature Phase Shift Keying). The receiver platform is based on an acquisition board, plugged in a personal computer (PC). The architecture of this board is based on a Texas Instruments Digital Signal Processor (DSP) namely the TMS320C6201. In reception, acoustic signals are received on 4 hydrophones. These input signals are synchronously sampled. Demodulation, rhythm recovery and equalization are then performed using digital processing. Decided data or output equalizer samples are then transferred to the PC to be processed for source decoding.

e(x)

S2 (x)
Fig. 2. CONVOLUTIONAL CODE (7,5) SCHEME

The acoustic link was evaluated during sea-trials carried out between 2002 and 2004. The adaptive receiver was tested for continuous data stream transmission. The acoustic link have to be modular enough in order to test many configurations and to evaluate its robustness on many scenarios. Most of the transmitted sequences were successfully demodulated during several minutes. Receiver robustness and adaptability was clearly shown. Spatial diversity interest is confirmed. In order to validate the TRIDENT system in an operational context, the acoustic modem was integrated onboard the REDERMOR II AUV [5]. According to the results obtained during sea-trial carried out in June 2005, one can note the robustness of the spatio-temporal equalizer. The first tests show that real time transmission of information (sonar images) is feasible even with harsh channels such as the underwater acoustic channel and in presence of multiple interferers. In this context, the contribution of a channel coding can improve the transmission robustness and protect the data transmitted from remaining errors.
So far, this acoustic link version does not use channel coding. To evaluate different source and/or channel coder, data are emitted from a reference file. A new carrier frequency (11.2 kHz) is added to allow low bite rate (from 2.8 to 5.6 kbps) speech transmission. For this reason, platform extension concern the new design of the emitter (Fig. 1). Unlike the receiver, the emitter platform is based on an external board with an identical DSP connected to the PC by an USB link (Universal Serial Bus).

2 to 10. Usually convolutional codes are specified by parameters (n, k, L), quantity L designing the constraint length of the code. It is defined by L = k(m -1) and it represents the number of bits in the encoder memory that affects the generation of the n output bits. The decoding process use the Viterbi algorithm with a trellis representation. Decoding is perform with two option: hard and soft decision decoding. The hard decoding only uses binary values, whereas the soft option uses real values coming from output equalizer or soft differential decoder.

The first code studied is the convolutional code (CC) (7, 5)1. This code is defined by two equations (1),(2), Xq is the input value q-delayed, and is represented as we can see in the Fig. 2:

X2)e(x) (1) S2(X) = (1 +X2)e(X) (2) In this case, two zero bits are added at the end of the frame in order to close the treillis.
Si(x)
=(1 + x +

Si(x) =(1 + x + X2)e(x)

(3)

(4) The scheme for the CC (35, 23) is shown in Fig. 3. Equations (3),(4) define this code. In this case, four zero bits are added at the end of the frame.
=

S2(X)

(1 + X +X2+ X4)e(x)

SI (X)

III. CHANNEL CODING STRATEGIES

In order to improve the acoustic link, channel coding may correct remaining errors. Main objectives are to decrease BER from 10-2 down to 10-4 . Different channel coding strategies can be used. In this project we check the use of Convolutional

e (x)

Codes (CC) and Reed Solomon (RS) block codes. Differential coding may be added for its efficiency in dealing with phase ambiguity in reception.
A. Convolutional codes

S2 (x)
Fig. 3. CONVOLUTIONAL CODE (35,23) SCHEME

Both hard and soft decoding are studied and evaluated.

B. Reed Solomon codes Reed Solomon (RS) codes (n, k, t) are cyclic codes built from n symbols with a maximum of n = q -1, where q is the number of elements in the Galois Field (GFq) and q = 2n. t is the symbol power corecting code, so the number of control symbols is 2t and the number of information symbols that can be
1 octal representation

Convolutional codes are commonly specified by three parameters (n, k, m): . n: number of output bits . k: number of input bits . m: number of memory registers The quantity k/n called the code rate is a measure of the efficiency of the code. Commonly k range from 1 to 8 and n, from
2

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Convolutional Code (7,5)

Convolutional Code (35,23)

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Fig. 4. Mixed Excited Linear Prediction Coder/Decoder

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transmitted is k = n -2t. The decoding process can also be hard or soft. Hard decoding does not use information coming from the channel whereas soft decoding uses such information to improve the decoding process. Based on the Chase algorithm, the soft decoding process also uses Berlekamp and Chien algorithm to correct received symbols. In our case, we look after 4 unreliable bits and check over 16 possible codewords.
C. Phase ambiguity Receiver and emitter have to be synchronized. Carrier recovery is classically resolve by the use of a Phase Locked Loop (PLL). Without resolving the fourfold phase ambiguity, the PLL could lock to any of four possible phase states, only one has the right carrier phase state. Since the QPSK is invariant to 7/2, 7 and 37w/2 shift, the receiver suffers from phase ambiguity. A solution to cut out this problem is to applied a differential coding to the phase of the transmitted QPSK symbols. In case of hard decisions, the solution is well-known. Different solutions proposed in [6] and [7] may be used for soft differential decoding. Proposed modifications of DPSK would reduce the amount of signal processing that would have to be done in the receiver. This can be based on the phase of the QPSK signals xo [n] = jV) [n]

10-5

1o-6

10-6

10

10
5

Es/NO (dB)

10

Es/NO (dB)

10

Fig. 5. CONVOLUTIONAL CODE (7,5) and (35,23)

in order to compute soft differential decoding output (or being the output equalizer variance).
IV. MELP CODER/DECODER

(5) 1] + 4b[n] QPSK symbols can be obtained using the following equation:
bDiff [n] = bDiff [n-

x [n] = x [n

-l]o [n]

(6)

The Mixed Excitation Linear Prediction (MELP) voice coder model is based on the traditional LPC vocoder. However, the MELP has additional abilities, like mixed pulse and noise excitation, periodic or aperiodic impulses, adaptive spectral enhancement and pulse dispersion filter. New features allow MELP coder/decoder to better represents the natural human speech [8]. Speech signal is segmented in frames having a duration of 22.5 ms, with a 8 kHz sample frequency. Each speech sample is 16 bits-quantizied giving a number of 2560 bits per frame at the MELP coder input. After a compression factor close to 53, this bit rate is down reduced to 54 bits per frame, that is to say 2.4 kbps [9]. Synchronization bits are added to the bit stream to find back the speech frame at the decoder.
V. RESULTS To improve performance of TRIDENT acoustic link and before adding speech extension, channel coding is under consideration, so far we examine Convolutional Codes and Reed Solomon block code. Once solved the equalizer robustness, channel coding may add extra performance and improve speech synthesis quality. Channel coding goal is to lower the bit error rate from 10-2 to 10-4. Results presented are obtained by simulations in presence of Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN). Fig. 5, presents performance obtained with convolutional codes both for a 4 states and a 16 states coder. It clearly appears that differential coding decreases performance in doubling the bit error rate. We take the BER at the output of the channel as a reference for the 2 options, with Differential Coding (DD) and without DD (SD). At 10-5, we have a lost of 2.5 dB when using DD both for hard and soft decoding. Let us recall that in case of phase ambiguity, the decoding process may not work correctly. It also appears that we get better performance with the 16 states coder/decoder but the 16 states decoding is more expensive in

where x [n] = ej PDiff is the differentially encoded QPSK (DQPSK) symbol stream. Decoding can be based on the phase values of the received DQPSK signal x according to:
4

[n]

ODiff [n] -4Diff [n-1]

=

(7)

where y [n]

e /Diff [n] or alternatively:

yo [n]

y[n].y [n-1]

(8)

Rotated data ZDiff can be represented by:

ZDiff = y[n].y [n -1] (9) Then the real part and the imaginary part of ZDi ff are weighted with the short term average of the squared errors to generate the soft decisions (Log-likelihood ratio) both soft real and imaginary part of ZDiff.
ZDiff .real

real (ZDiff )/72 ZDif f.lmg = tmg (ZDif f ) /7

=

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Fig. 6. CONVOLUTIONAL CODE 7,5 and 35,23 comparison

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Fig. 8. Errors with a 5 dB SNR for a CC(7,5) Gaussian Channel equalizer is used to reduce those different effects. GESMA wishes to extend TRIDENT possibilities to the tansmission of speech and also improves the acoustic link robustness by the addition of channel coding. To extend the speech acoustic link range, GESMA decided to choose the low bit rate MELP coder/decoder working at 2400 bps. First trials show a good synthesized speech quality.
Different kinds of error correcting scheme are presented including convolutional codes (CC), Reed Solomon codes (RS). Different options are also under consideration, the possibility of hard and soft decoding for the two cases (CC and RS). In order to solve the phase ambiguity, differential coding/decoding, both hard and soft option are presented in the case of CC coding/decoding. The final decision have to take into account others features like code rate, spectral efficiency, real time constraints. Next step is to evaluate these different possibilities over sea trials transmissions. REFERENCES [1] J. Labat, C. Laot Blind adaptive multiple input decision feedback equalizer with a selfoptimized configuration trans on Comm, Vol. 49, N4, April 2001. [2] G. Lapierre, J. Labat, J. Trubuil Evaluation of an high data rate acoustic link: contribution of blind spatio-temporal equalization Underwater Acoustics ECUA 2000, vol. 1, pp. 549-554, 2000. [3] J. Trubuil, G. Lapierre, T. Gall, J. Labat Real-time high data rate acoustic link based on spatio temporal blind equalization: the TRIDENT acoustic system OCEANS 2002, Vol.4, pp 2438-2443 Biloxy, MI, USA [4] L. M. Suplee, R. P. Cohn, J. S. Collura, A. V. McGree MELP: The New Federal Standard at 2400 bps IEEE ICASSP'97 Conference, Munich Germany, pp 1591-1594 [5] J. Trubuil, G. Lapierre, J. Labat, N. Beuzeulin, A. Goalic, C. Laot Improved AUV autonomy provided by an underwater acoustic link International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers, ISOPE 2006, San Francisco, USA 28 mai-2 juin, 2006. [6] H. Igarashi, K. Ueda, K. Murakami, T. Fujino Performance of a soft-output adaptive equalizer combined with soft-decision metrics generator based on differential detection Vehicular Technology Conference, 1997 IEEE 47th Volume 2, 4-7 May 1997 Page(s):700 - 704 vol.2 [7] S. Weiss, M. R. Bennett, N. C. Tisdale, E. Gibson A differential QPSK Modem Using the TMS320C6711 DSK Texas Instruments European DSP Education and Research Symposium, Birmingham, November 16, 2004. [8] D. J. Rahika, J. S. Collura, T. E. Fuja, D. Sridhara, T. Fazel Error Coding Strategies for MELP vocoder in wireless and ATM environments National Security Agency and Maryland, Notre Dame Universities, USA. [9] T. Fazel, T. Fuja Channel-Encoded Transmission of MELP-Compressed Speech Electrical Engeneering Department, Maryland University, USA.

RS(31 ,29,3) -G3 Output channel RS soft decoding RS hard decoding

BER input

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BER output

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Fig. 7. Reed Solomon RS(31, 29) hard and soft decoding Gaussian Channel

to the specifications. All the configurations using the soft, option allow to lower the BER from 10-2 to 10-4. In case of RS coding/decoding (Fig. 7), the soft option allows also to reach the

computational load. Fig. 6 shows the different codes answering

BER of 10-4.

We also check the channel coding to protect the MELP bit stream. Errors may appear, resulting in signal modifications at the synthesiser, shown in blue in Fig. 8. Each coding option has its coding rate (0.5 for the CC option and 0.93 for the RS option). According to the coding option and the user bit rate fixed, spectral efficiency may decrease and used fre-

bandwith, significantly increases. Consequently equalizer performance may be worst. In this case, coding contribution might be insufficient to recover resulting degradation and improve BER.
quency

VI. CONCLUSIONS PERPECTIVES

-

GESMA (Groupe d'Etudes Sous-Marines de l'Atlantique) and ENST-Bretagne already have developed a real time acoustic link named TRIDENT (TRansmission de Donnes EN Temps reel) able to transmit images, text and data. An acoustic transmission is corrupted by different impacts. One can note multipath propagation, Doppler effect and noise. A spatio-temporal
4