Author Identifier (ORCID)
Ruba Zaheer: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4053-3293
Quoc Viet Phung: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6138-3944
Iftekhar Ahmad: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4441-9631
Asma Aziz: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3538-0536
Daryoush Habibi: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7662-6830
Abstract
This paper comprehensively reviews recent advancements in Underwater Beamforming (UWB) systems, highlighting its pivotal role in underwater communication, sensing, and environmental monitoring. It explores the various beamforming applications, ranging from maritime surveillance to marine life monitoring, and indicates its significance in enhancing signal clarity, spatial resolution, and noise suppression in underwater acoustic environments. The unique challenges posed by the underwater environment that introduce complexities into the beamforming process such as non-stationary noise interference, severe signal attenuation, multipath propagation, and dynamic environmental variability are thoroughly discussed. The review systematically discusses and examines conventional, adaptive, and learning-based beamforming techniques, analyzing their strengths, limitations, and suitability for various underwater conditions. A detailed analysis of Direction of Arrival (DOA) estimation methods is provided. Furthermore, the review surveys the metrics commonly used to assess the performance of beamforming algorithms and compares their performance numerically. Emerging trends in beamforming, particularly the integration of data-driven machine learning approaches with traditional signal processing methods, are also discussed. The paper concludes by highlighting critical gaps in existing research and proposing future directions.
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
1-1-2025
Publication Title
Journal of Ocean Engineering and Science
Publisher
Elsevier
School
School of Engineering
RAS ID
84294
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Comments
Zaheer, R., Phung, V. Q., Ahmad, I., Aziz, A., Habibi, D., Rong, Y., & Hasan, W. K. (2025). A review on underwater beamforming: Techniques, challenges, and future directions. Journal of Ocean Engineering and Science. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joes.2025.09.004