Channel Sounding for Long-Range Underwater Acoustic Communication: Analysis and Dataset of Vertical Dimension

The high cost and unpredictable outcomes of underwater acoustic communication field experiments make it challenging to validate communication schemes in real-world environments fully. Therefore, researchers highly favor reproducible channel datasets. Open-source benchmarks such as Watermark are considered accurate and efficient examples of shallow water near-range channels, serving as key tools for verifying the performance of underwater acoustic communication technology. However, no underwater acoustic channel dataset developed is currently tailored for deep-sea, long-range communication scenarios. In long-range underwater acoustic communication (LUAC), sound fixing and ranging (SOFAR) channels formed by the sound channel axis (SCA) are predominantly focused on, lacking joint analysis of multiple array element measured channels in the vertical dimension of deep-sea. This article constructs a deep-sea vertical single-input multiple-output (SIMO) channel dataset. The standardized channel data can be used to replay and simulate experimental conditions within a 250km transmission distance. All channel files are processed based on chirp probes and correlation channel detectors, providing channel impulse responses (CIR) in 2–4 kHz, with time delay extensions up to 10s. Additionally, we continuously measured UAC channels for 30 minutes, analyzed the slowly time-varying characteristics of long-range channels, and determined the channel data type in the dataset. Based on the measured data, we explored the multipath structure and statistical characteristics of LUAC channels in the vertical dimension, corroborating the simulation results of the acoustic field prediction model Bellhop. The dataset exhibits typical characteristics of LUAC channels, including large time delay extensions and differentiated main path channel structures, which can inform the design of communication strategies and effectively verify the performance of communication schemes.