Fast and Accurate Underwater Acoustic Horizontal Ranging Algorithm for an Arbitrary Sound-Speed Profile in the Deep Sea

Pairwise ranging between nodes plays a crucial role in Internet-of-Underwater-Things (IoUT) networks, and it typically impacts the overall performance of such networks. As the sound speed depends on several parameters, time-of-flight-based techniques cannot work well under varying sound speeds in actual underwater conditions. Pairwise ranging algorithms that consider stratification should be studied to improve ranging accuracy. However, there is a tradeoff between underwater acoustic ranging accuracy and number of calculations. This makes it challenging to implement underwater acoustic ranging algorithms in IoUT networks. In this article, we propose an underwater acoustic horizontal ranging algorithm that rapidly and accurately estimates the horizontal range from a sender to a receiver under an arbitrary sound-speed profile in the deep sea. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm accurately calculates the horizontal range with a low computational complexity. We validate the performance of the proposed algorithm using the data collected during an ultrashort baseline precision test in the South China Sea.

Automated summary

Pairwise ranging between nodes is crucial in IoUT networks, but it is challenging to accurately calculate underwater ranging in actual underwater conditions. This article proposes an underwater acoustic horizontal ranging algorithm that can rapidly and accurately estimate the horizontal range from a sender to a receiver in the deep sea.