Abstract
Underwater Acoustic Communication (UAC) has garnered significant attention due to its applications in marine science, defence, and exploration. With the vast majority of the Earth's surface covered by water, there is a growing demand for reliable and effective communication techniques in underwater environments. However, the underwater acoustic channel is the most challenging channel due to its harsh characteristics, which significantly hinder the reliability and performance of UAC systems. Orthogonal Time Frequency Space (OTFS) modulation has emerged as a promising solution for next-generation UAC systems to address high Doppler and high mobility scenarios. It has demonstrated tolerance to fast time-varying channel characteristics and enhanced resilience to Doppler shifts and multipath interference. These make OTFS suitable for the complex underwater environment. This study presents the first comprehensive review of the key challenges and state-of-the-art research and development of OTFS in underwater operations. It highlights the suitability and relevance of OTFS modulation for UAC. It also reviews recent advancements in channel estimation techniques tailored for OTFS-UAC systems. Potential future directions in sparse signal recovery for robust channel estimation and equalization, adaptive techniques, energy efficiency, and possible MAC protocols are also discussed to build a foundation for the next-generation UAC systems.
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
3-1-2026
Volume
240
Publication Title
Signal Processing
Publisher
Elsevier
School
School of Engineering
RAS ID
84471
Funders
Edith Cowan University
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Comments
Subba, B., Phung, Q. V., Lachowicz, S., Hasan, W. K., Haziq, M., Habibi, D., & Ahmad, I. (2025). Orthogonal time frequency space modulation for underwater acoustic communication systems: A review. Signal Processing, 240, 110359. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sigpro.2025.110359