Design and Performance Verification of A-HFM Signals for Simultaneous Frame Detection, Cell ID Assignment, and Doppler Estimation in AUVs Using Multiple Surface Buoys

With the advancement of artificial intelligence, the inference capabilities of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) have significantly improved, leading to growing interest in AUV applications. To ensure reliable operations, the field of underwater communications demands robust schemes that account for AUV mobility and enable the formation of underwater cellular networks. Conventional approaches using Linear Frequency Modulation (LFM) and Zadoff–Chu sequence (ZCS) sequences for frame detection and Cell ID (CID) assignment degrade substantially under severe Doppler conditions. In particular, AUVs experience pronounced Doppler shifts due to their mobility in underwater channels. In this study, we propose a methodology in which distinct Superimposed Adjusted-HFM (SA-HFM) signals are assigned to multiple buoys, allowing AUVs to jointly perform frame detection, CID assignment, and Doppler estimation in challenging underwater environments. To validate the proposed scheme, an ocean experiment was conducted in the East Sea of the Republic of Korea. The results demonstrate that the SA-HFM-based signals successfully achieved frame detection, CID assignment, and Doppler estimation at distances ranging from 500 m to approximately 2 km, even when the AUV moved at speeds of 1.02–1.54 m/s. The experimental results indicate that the proposed approach can offer robust underwater communication and facilitate the deployment of underwater cellular networks for mobile AUV operations.