Symbol Estimation Algorithm for MIMO Underwater Acoustic Communication System Based on Multiplicative Noise Model

The stochastic and time-varying underwater acoustic (UWA) channels are usually affected by serious multipath delays, energy loss and distortion factors, thus making the modeling and estimation of the UWA channel challenging problems in the research community. Based on the analysis of the UWA channel, the system with multiplicative noise (SMN) model is established to characterize the complicated factors such as random time-variation, nonlinearity, and energy attenuation. As to the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) UWA communication, the complicated SMN model is established for MIMO UWA channels; based on which, the transmitted symbols are estimated according to the optimal recursive filtering algorithm. The algorithm is derived based on the projection theorem, which is optimal in the sense of linear minimum variance, and can overcome the intersymbol interference and noise pollution efficiently. The optimal algorithm is computed recursively, which has the advantage of computation-efficiency and can track the random variation of the fast time-varying channel gain dynamically. Simulation results have validated the effectiveness of the algorithm. The model and the algorithm can be extended flexibly to certain practical problems, such as the joint channel and symbol estimation in underwater acoustic communication systems.