On Channel Codes for Short Underwater Messages

Abstract

Acoustic underwater communication is a challenging task. For a reliable transmission, not only good channel estimation and equalization, but also strong error correcting codes are needed. In this paper, we present the results of the coding competition “Wanted: Best channel codes for short underwater messages” as well as our own findings on the influence of the modulation alphabet size in the example of non-binary polar codes. Furthermore, the proposals of the competition are compared to other commonly used channel codes.

Keywords

• channel coding
• underwater acoustic sensor network
• forward error correction
• phase shift keying
• polar code