Implementation and Application of Bellhop Model in Underwater Acoustic Network Simulation

Abstract

With the development of underwater acoustic technology, underwater acoustic networks(UANs) have attracted much attention due to their performance in marine surveillance, disaster warning, and ocean security. The underwater acoustic channel is a crucial factor affecting the performance of UANs, and its complexity directly affects the pre-design and evaluation of UAN-related protocols, which is crucial to the practical application of protocols. Unlike traditional theoretical models, the Bellhop underwater acoustic channel model provides a more accurate method to obtain channel characteristics under different oceanic environments by calculating their acoustic fields via ray tracing. However, it cannot be directly applied to network simulation. This paper implemented a Bellhop underwater acoustic channel model based on NS3, the current most popular network simulation platform, and applied the Gaussian ray model to UAN simulation. The comparison results show that the model can effectively simulate the underwater propagation characteristics of acoustic signals and provide a reference for practical UAN-related protocol development.

Keywords

• underwater acoustic networks
• channel model
• bellhop
• ns3