Preliminary estimates of year-round acoustic communications potential in the Canada Basin

Long-range acoustic communication networks, which operate over hundreds of kilometers, are important enablers for persistent surveillance in the Arctic. Acoustic communication must take place over such long ranges due to difficulty in deploying communication nodes in such an inhospitable environment. Signal transmission over long ranges is challenged by distortion caused by refraction and multipath addition, so the propagation medium should be understood in order to optimize node placement and estimate the network performance. The Arctic is a unique acoustic propagation environment due to the presence of an ice-covered surface and oceanographic variability around the shelf breaks. To better understand the current state of Arctic propagation, acoustic signals were transmitted during the year-long Canada Basin Acoustic Propagation Experiment (CANAPE). In this talk, signals from the CANAPE data are used to assess the feasibility of year-round, long-range acoustic communications in the Canada Basin by examining several metrics. These metrics include: the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the received signals, time-spreading of the signals due to multipath arrivals, and signal coherence. This talk will focus on the seasonality of these metrics in order to assess how the performance of acoustic communication systems may be altered by temporal variability of the Arctic acoustic propagation characteristics.Long-range acoustic communication networks, which operate over hundreds of kilometers, are important enablers for persistent surveillance in the Arctic. Acoustic communication must take place over such long ranges due to difficulty in deploying communication nodes in such an inhospitable environment. Signal transmission over long ranges is challenged by distortion caused by refraction and multipath addition, so the propagation medium should be understood in order to optimize node placement and estimate the network performance. The Arctic is a unique acoustic propagation environment due to the presence of an ice-covered surface and oceanographic variability around the shelf breaks. To better understand the current state of Arctic propagation, acoustic signals were transmitted during the year-long Canada Basin Acoustic Propagation Experiment (CANAPE). In this talk, signals from the CANAPE data are used to assess the feasibility of year-round, long-range acoustic communications in the Canada Basin by examini...