Long‐range acoustic communication in deep water with a shallow source and horizontal towed array.

In September 2010 a long-range acoustic communication (LRAC10) experiment was carried out in deep water off the Southern California Coast. The experiment involved two mobile components: (1) a source towed slowly at a speed of 2–3 knots at 75-m depth and (2) a horizontal line array towed at 3.5 knots at a depth of 200-m. Phase-coherent communication sequences were transmitted in the 200–300 Hz frequency band at various ranges. Initial analysis of the LRAC10 data demonstrates that an information rate of 50 bits/s can be achieved over a 550-km range using QPSK modulation and error-correction coding combined with beamforming.