Experiments on a Compact Multichannel Vector Sensor Receiver for Signal Acquisition in Underwater Communication Systems

Successful demodulation of transmitted signals in communication systems is highly dependent on accurate signal acquisition. In this paper, we present experimental evidence that demonstrates a ring vector receiver can remarkably improve signal acquisition, compared to a regular scalar receiver. The vector receiver measures the vector components of the underwater acoustic field, i.e., the acoustic particle velocities, in addition to the scalar component of the underwater acoustic field, that is, the acoustic pressure. The multichannel nature of the vector receiver, along with certain characteristics of the vector field components, generate stronger peaks after matched filtering, that allow for more accurate signal acquisition and packet detection.