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IEEE JOURNAL OF OCEANIC ENGINEERING, VOL. 26, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2001

Underwater Acoustic Receiver Employing

Direct-Sequence Spread Spectrum and Spatial
Diversity Combining for Shallow-Water Multiaccess
Networking
Charalampos C. Tsimenidis, Oliver R. Hinton, Alan E. Adams, and Bayan S. Sharif

AbstractThis paper proposes an underwater adaptive-array

receiver structure that utilizes direct-sequence code division multiple access and spatial diversity combining in order to achieve reliable low-data rate multiuser communication in an asynchronous
shallow-water network. The performance of the proposed receiver
architecture has been verified by means of offline processing of
data acquired during sea trials in the summer of 1999 in the North
Sea. Results show that this computationally efficient structure is
nearfar resistant and provides successful multiuser operation in
the shallow-water channel.
Index TermsDirect-sequence code-division multiple access,
spread spectrum, shallow-water networking.

I. INTRODUCTION

IRECT-SEQUENCE code-division multiple access (DSCDMA) is a spread-spectrum (SS) technique that is often
utilized to achieve multiaccess communication. To be categorized as SS, a communications system must employ a transmission bandwidth that is considerably greater than the information rate. Utilization of bandwidth in this manner introduces
a multiplicity of benefits, such as immunity against multipath
and multiaccess interference suppression capability. However,
the main advantage of DS-CDMA, particularly for underwater
acoustic networks, is the support of asynchronous communications [1][4]. Recently, the flourishing development and use
of DS-CDMA in cellular-radio mobile communication systems
motivated the application of this particular communication technique in shallow-water acoustic networks.
The shallow-water acoustic channel is an exceptionally
difficult transmission medium that challenges the communications methods available today. The principal difficulties
arise from multipath interference due to low-attenuated bottom
and surface reflections associated with small grazing angles.
These cause both long time-delay spread and large multipath
amplitudes to be present in the received signal. In such a
scenario, a system that employs DS-CDMA benefits from the
immunity that results from the utilization of the spreading codes
Manuscript received March 13, 2000; revised June 4, 2001. This work was
supported through the MAST-III Programme-D-G-XII-European Union within
the LOTUS project under Contract MAS3-CT97-0099.
The authors are with the Underwater Research Group, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 7RU, U.K.
Publisher Item Identifier S 0364-9059(01)09796-5.

Fig. 1. Transmitted packet structure.

or signatures used to distinguish between users. In addition,

the large timebandwidth product of the SS-classified signal
waveforms provides the system with the capability to recover
discrete multipath signal components that can be combined to
allow diversity reception.
Furthermore, the use of the DS-CDMA spreading codes allows transmission between users to occur within the same frequency band and time slot. This presents an important feature
of DS-CDMA permitting users to randomly access the channel.
On the other hand, the blindness a user encounters during transmission can only be compensated by employing time-division
multiple access (TDMA) protocols. However, there are applications such as the monitoring of instruments deployed in sea
where only half-duplex transmission is considered. The design
of such a DS-CDMA communications system also needs to take
into account the limited bandwidth available since the utilization
of SS signatures reduces considerably the effective transmission
rate. Thus, a designer is challenged to determine a balance between system capacity and transmission efficiency.
Preceding research in the field of multiuser communications
for the shallow-water channel has demonstrated the feasibility
of DS-CDMA over signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) time-spread
channels [5], [6]. In [7], both the centralized and decentralized versions of a single-element receiver were studied. The
decentralized implementation of the receiver is based on the
structure analyzed in [8] and refers to a receiver algorithm that
demodulates a single user by utilizing the information of the
users training sequence. In contrast, the centralized receiver
requires knowledge of all the users training sequences. In [9],
the receiver structure initially examined in [7] was adapted to
support spatial diversity processing.
In this paper, we confine ourselves to linear modulation
schemes such as DS-CDMA quadrature phase-shift keying
(QPSK), and important aspects of an adaptive array single-user
receiver. The paper is organized as follows. In Section II, the

03649059/01$10.00 2001 IEEE

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Fig. 2. DS-QPSK signal constellation and transmitter architecture.

basic model of the communication system under consideration

is outlined. Section III is devoted to the receiver architecture.
Section IV presents experimental signal processing results.
Conclusions and suggestions for further work are drawn in
Section V.
II. COMMUNICATION SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
A two-user asynchronous shallow-water network is considered. The direct-sequence SS communications system under examination employs the signaling packet illustrated in Fig. 1. The
binary phase-shift keying (BPSK)-modulated pseudonoise (PN)
sequence is utilized to provide both a measure of the time delay
involved in the transmission and to identify the presence of a
user in the received signal. The latter is feasible due to the fact
that a distinct PN sequence is assigned to each user. The BPSK
preamble is followed by an identical dual-channel QPSK-modulated PN sequence spread by the users signature.
This signal overhead is required for the training of the adaptive receiver structure needed to despread the received signal. It
should be pointed out that the quadrature (Q) channel employs
the same but lag-displaced form of the PN training sequence
used by the in-phase (I) channel. The same principle holds for
spreading waveforms too. The training sequences employed are
specifically selected to provide both sufficient autocorrelation
processing gain, and low-valued crosscorrelation properties. For
this purpose, commonly used preferred sequences were selected
exhibiting a three-valued cross-correlation function [10][12].
The transmitter architecture that has been used to generate the
DS-QPSK signal is depicted in Fig. 2.
III. RECEIVER STRUCTURE
The receiver is based on the adaptive correlator structure outlined in [13][16] but modified to allow spatial-diversity combining processing [17], [18]. Analytically, the function of the receiver algorithm can be subdivided into three processing stages.
A. Stage I: Signal Acquisition
The receiver front end is illustrated in Fig. 3. The received
signal is first bandpass-filtered in order to remove low-frequency signal disturbances. After IQ mixing and chip-matched
filtering, the acquired signal is sampled twice per chip. It is
worth emphasizing that the preprocessing involved in this stage

Fig. 3.

Front-end for the ith receive array element.

Fig. 4. Correlation detector.

of the algorithm is identical for all the receive elements of the

array.
B. Stage II: Time-Delay Estimation and User Detection
The second stage operates on the acquired complex-baseband signal prior to any data-demodulation processing in order
to detect the presence of a user and to estimate signal parameters required in the following stages. Among the most significant parameters is the initial time delay and Doppler frequency involved in the transmission between receiver and transmitter. However, since we adopt a noncoherent approach to the
time-delay estimation, compensation for the initial Doppler in
the received signal at this stage is not required.
The detection stage employed to provide the test statistic is
demonstrated in Fig. 4. The structure is generally known as a
correlation receiver. The received signal is processed through a
PN-matched filter followed by a square-law envelope detector.
The output of the envelope detector is compared to a predefined threshold, which is chosen to provide the desired falsealarm probability. In practice, the threshold is experimentally
set depending on the network scenario. Once the threshold is
exceeded, the algorithm stores the following samples that span
a window in time that approximates the delay spread of the
channel. The estimate of the initial time delay is the value that
corresponds to the maximum magnitude in the stored samples.
The correlator structure is known to be optimal for a single user

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Fig. 6. Adaptive correlator structure for the ith branch.

Fig. 5.

Adaptive-array combiner.

in the presence of additive Gaussian noise but suffers significantly in performance in the presence of multiaccess interference (MAI) due to the nearfar problem. Moreover, if noticeable Doppler shifts are present in the received signal, then the
correlator structure performance is further degraded in terms of
correlation peak losses due to the narrow ambiguity function of
the BPSK PN waveform. For the experimental result presented
in this paper, a waveform of 511-chips was selected which provides a user with an advantage of 27 dB of processing gain.
Given this length of code and the lack of significant movement
between transmitter and receiver, the utilization of the correlator
structure in conjunction with a PN waveform is justifiable. It is,
however, important to realize that time delay must be estimated
independently for each element of the receive array as deployed,
due mainly to its dimensions and its specific geometric structure.
C. Stage III: Demodulation
Once the presence of a user in the received signal is detected,
the receiver algorithm proceeds over to the third stage in order to
demodulate the transmitted information. The generic structure is
depicted in Fig. 5. Each receive element is assigned an adaptive
weight vector that can be implemented in the form of a finite impulse response (FIR) filter, where the complex taps are spaced at
half the chip rate. The adaptive algorithm simultaneously combines three functions. It performs adaptive equalization in order
to mitigate multipath effects present in the received signal. Additionally, it adaptively operates as a correlator/despreader; thus,
the signal presented at its output is the recovered despread information. Finally, in the case of a multiuser scenario, it attempts
to mitigate MAI. To further analyze the operation of the adaptive filter, it is constructive to consider its block diagram shown
in Fig. 6.
At the output of Stage II, the complex-valued samples are
shifted into a register to form an observation vector . The
length of the observation vector is chosen to be twice the
length of the DS-CDMA signatures used by the communication
system. At each iteration, the contents of the shift register are
cleared and a complete new set of samples is used to refill

the buffer. Given this, there is no need for explicit synchronization; the only requirements are the initial time delay and
knowledge of the symbol duration so that the contents of the
FIR filter can be properly updated between iterations of the
employed adaptive algorithm. The timing between transmitter
and receiver is matched so that the right-most sample of the
taped-delay line corresponds to the first chip of the current
transmitted data symbol. This ensures that the algorithm will
keep training on the correct data symbol even if the delay
spread of the channel is greater than the length of the spreading
code. Another prominent highlight of the suggested structure is
that exact knowledge of the spreading signature utilized by the
transmitter is not necessary. In contrast, the receiver precisely
requires information about a predefined data training sequence
in order to minimize the mean-squared error (MSE) during
operation in training mode. When the achieved output SNR
is sufficiently high, typically 5 dB to 10 dB, then the receiver
switches to decision-directed operation mode.
As previously indicated the main optimization criterion
adopted is the minimization of the MSE. Mathematically
expressed,
(1)
Equation (1) indicates that in designing the adaptive FIR
at time
that
filters, the goal is to find the matrix
. The
minimizes the quadratic cost function
most common iterative methods for minimization are those
based on the recursive least square (RLS) and the least mean
square (LMS) algorithms. In the proposed receiver algorithm,
the equalizer output is sampled at symbol rate while the input is
clocked at the chip rate. This fact makes almost impractical the
use of algorithms, such as the RLS, that take advantage of the
cyclic correlation between the equalizer contents at successive
output sampling times. We therefore concentrate on the LMS
stochastic gradient algorithm. In our case, the tap weights of
the adaptive equalizers are updated once per symbol according
to the normalized LMS (NLMS) algorithm [19]. This variation
of the standard LMS [20] is preferred due to the fact that the
adaptation step can be additionally optimized according to
the inverse of the input signal power. The adaptive step size
represents a feature that is more attractive in practice since both
multipath propagation and the presence of multiuser interference can dramatically affect the input-signal variations. The

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Fig. 7. Shallow-water experiment site showing distinct transmit/receive positions.

error signal
, which is constructed after spatial diversity
combing is given as

(2)
where is the number of receive elements and
phase-corrected MMSE filter output of the th branch

is the

the decision-directed mode it is derived from the diversitycombined output.

Strictly speaking, carrier-phase synchronization could be
achieved implicitly by the complex equalizers. However, in
the presence of multiuser interference it is often preferable
to use explicit, more rapidly converging, phase synchronizers
embodied in the form of first-order decision-directed digital
phase-locked loops (DPLL). The phase estimate is obtained by
differentiating the maximum log-likelihood function [21] with
respect to the phase

(3)
denotes the training sequence of the desired user.
and
is precisely known, while in
During the training period

(4)

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Fig. 8.

IEEE JOURNAL OF OCEANIC ENGINEERING, VOL. 26, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2001

Receive array structure.

TABLE I
MAIN SYSTEM PARAMETERS

It should be emphasized that for the phase estimate of the firstorder DPLL the observation interval (summation) must be restricted to the currently processed symbol only. The first-order
DPLL is considered to be optimal since the phase is expected to
be very slowly varying over subsequent transmitted symbols.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL PERFORMANCE RESULTS
A. Experiment Description and Communication System
Parameters
To test the performance of the proposed receiver structure in
multipath and multiaccess interference scenarios, recorded data
were processed offline. The recorded signals were acquired
during sea trials conducted in the summer of 1999, in the
North Sea a few miles off the U.K. coast (Western Europe).
Fig. 7 depicts the shallow-water experiment site. The distinct
receive/transmit positions give an impression of the simulated
multiuser shallow-water network. The network was intended

Fig. 9. One-kilometer shallow-water channel impulse response evolution over

6 s. Date: 05.07.99; time: 1325; sea state: 0; depth: 40 m; latitude: 55 10.73;
longitude: 01 25.83.

to cover ranges between 110 km whereby different scenarios

were set up to test both the nearfar problem and the angular
user separating capability of receiver algorithms.
The receiver array employed was positioned in approximately
4050-m-deep water and is illustrated in Fig. 8. It consisted of
eight omnidirectional sensors comprising a horizontal plane of

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Fig. 10.

599

Velocity, salinity, and temperature profile (from left to the right).

four elements (sensors 36) and a vertical plane to provide both

beamforming and spatial diversity reception. The two identical
transmitters were positioned at 5 m distance from the seabed.
The transmitting power was fixed at 190 dB re Pa at a carrier
frequency of 9.6 kHz maximally band-limited at 4 kHz. The
modulation scheme employed was DS-CDMA QPSK. Table I
summarizes the major system parameters.
B. Channel Sounding and Environmental Data Monitoring
Prior to data transmission, a number of chirps were transmitted to determine typical impulse response properties of the
channel by correlation processing, and those for a 1-km channel
are presented in Fig. 9. The detected shallow-water channel responses exhibit delay-spread times of up to 15 ms for ranges between 1 and 3 km. The figure shows the variation of the channel
response over 6 s and it can be seen there is a very stable multipath structure for these particular experiments. However, even in
these circumstances, each path is subject to independent phase
fluctuations that must be tracked by the adaptive receiver.
Fig. 10 illustrates typical sound velocity, salinity, and temperature profiles extracted from measurements made during the
sea trials. In the figure, the leftmost line is velocity, with salinity
in the center and temperature at the right-hand side. The pressure scale is calibrated as depth in meters. The plots evidently
suggest an approximately isothermal temperature profile. The
sound velocity profile changes at the topmost few meters of
water are apparently due to variations in the salinity. The raytracing in Fig. 11 reveals a downward refracting channel and indicates that the major multipath propagation are not influenced
by the time-varying nature of the sea surface.

Fig. 11. Raytracing diagram.

C. Signal Processing
Offline signal processing and analysis of data acquired during
the sea experiment was performed in order to determine the reliability of the DS-CDMA receiver algorithm outlined in Section III. In the simulated two-user network scenario, User 1 was
positioned at a 3-km distance from the receiver while User 2
was at 2 km. The angular separation between the users was
45 degrees. It should be noted that for the demonstrated results 15-chip spreading codes were employed for both users.
Although it is possible to use longer spreading codes to increase

Fig. 12.

Received signal at sensor 1 (bottom).

the processing gain for a given source level and ambient noise,
however, this does not necessarily improve performance due
to the convergence and tracking constraints imposed by rapid
channel variations.
Fig. 12 illustrates the received signal as acquired by the
bottom sensor of the receive array. Although there is no overlap

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(a)

(b)

Fig. 15. Demodulation result for User 1: BER 0/5000, SINR

(a) Mean-squared error. (b) Output IQ constellation.
Fig. 13.

Channel impulse response for User 1.

(a)

(b)

Fig. 16. Demodulation results for User 2: BER 0/5000, SINR

(a) Mean-squared error. (b) Output IQ constellation

Fig. 14.

= 15.89 dB.

= 11.98 dB.

Channel impulse response for User 2.

in time in the transmission of the two users, this network

scenario is useful in order to evaluate the performance of the
receiver algorithm without any MAI. Figs. 13 and 14 depict the
channel impulse responses corresponding to the transmission of
User 1 and User 2, respectively. The channel impulse responses
were estimated by employing the detection algorithm outlined
in Section III. In this network scenario, one can observe the
distinct multipath nature of the two channels. Evidently, User
2 transmits through a multipath channel with an approximate
delay spread of 5 ms. In contrast the channel corresponding to
the transmission of User 1 exhibits little multipath propagation.
The amount of expected inter-symbol interference (ISI) will
be most noticeable in the case of User 2. However, since in
both cases the duration of the CDMA code is greater than the
delay spread of the channel the effects of ISI will be negligible.
Figs. 15 and 16 demonstrate demodulation results for both User
1 and User 2, respectively. Error-free transmission is achieved
whereas the output SINR measured at the demodulator output
is 15.89 dB and 11.98 dB for User 1 and User 2, respectively.
The SINR was calculated at the output of the spatial diversity
combiner according to [21]
(5)

Fig. 17.

Received signal at sensor 1 (bottom).

where
is the number of the transmitted symbols within a
packet excluding the symbols corresponding to the training sequence. The receiver algorithm was switched to the decision-directed mode after 200 symbols.
Fig. 17 depicts the signal received by sensor 1 in the next
scenario under consideration. Here, there is overlap in time in
the transmission of the two users. Specifically, the signal transmitted by User 2 arrives in the middle of the transmission of
User 1, well after the end of the training period. This represents
a worst-case situation for User 1 due to the fact that User 1 optimizes the receiver parameters without any multiple-access interference, thus when the signal of User 2 arrives the receiver algorithm can rely only on the rejection capability of the CDMA
code. In contrast, User 2 optimizes its receiver parameters by

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(a)

(b)

Fig. 21. Demodulation results for User 2: BER 0/5000, SINR

(a) Mean-squared error. (b) Output IQ constellation.

Fig. 18.

Channel impulse response for User 1.

Fig. 19.

= 10.87 dB.

Channel impulse response for User 2.

Fig. 22.

(a)

(b)

Fig. 20. Demodulation results for User 2: BER 0/5000, SINR

(a) Mean-squared error. (b) Output IQ constellation.

= 14.73 dB.

utilizing the training sequence in the presence of User 1. Hence,

it is expected to perform nearly unaffected in the presence of
User 1. The advantage of User 2 in terms of transmit power over
User 1 is estimated to be 2.26 dB. Figs. 18 and 19 illustrate the
channel impulse responses for User 1 and User 2, respectively.
The demodulator output is shown in Figs. 20 and 21. A closer
look at the resulting SINR levels reveals that the resulting degradation due to MAI remains for both users in the range of 1 dB.

Output SINR versus element combination for the weak user.

To further analyze the performance of the proposed receiver,

let us consider Fig. 22. Demonstrated in this figure is the
achieved SINR at the output of the diversity combiner as a
function of the number of the receive elements employed
in the demodulation algorithm. Results shown in this figure
for the weak user represent an average over 10 min of transmission. This corresponds to approximately 10 transmitted
symbols. Here, the proposed algorithm is compared with
the performance of a simple matched filter receiver utilizing
equal-gain combining in conjunction with a first-order DPLL
and automatic gain control. Evidently, the performance of
the suggested adaptive-correlator receiver outperforms the
conventional matched filter in all cases. A small degradation in
performance is observed in the single-element situation where
the convergence of the adaptive algorithm can be critical; but
even in this case the performance is very similar. Furthermore,
in order to investigate the contribution of the diversity array
in the performance of the receiver algorithm the length of
the adaptive correlator is shortened. Demonstrated is the case
where only the first seven chips of the spreading code are
used corresponding to approximately half the symbol energy.
Clearly, the performance in terms of the achieved output SINR

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drops significantly for the single-element receiver. However,

the sensitivity to the length of the correlator becomes less
significant as the number of the receive elements employed
increases.

V. CONCLUSION
An adaptive-array receiver architecture that utilizes
DS-CDMA and spatial diversity combining has been proposed
for reliable low data rate multiuser communications in an asynchronous shallow-water network. The most outstanding feature
of the receiver algorithm is the approach that integrates three
fundamental communications functions into one structure:
despreading, equalization, and multiaccess interference rejection. Moreover, the only information required by the receiver
is the knowledge of the distinct training sequences utilized to
detect the presence of a user. These are required to train the
adaptive equalizers at the beginning of the transmission. The
performance of the receiver was evaluated by means of offline
signal processing of experimental data. The demonstrated results were compared against the performance of a conventional
matched-filter receiver employing equal-gain combining. In
all cases the proposed receiver algorithm outperformed the
conventional one in both single and multichannel arrangements.
Further investigation is continuing to both enhance the reliability of the existing algorithms and to evaluate the performance
of the receiver structure by employing different spreading code
lengths. In addition, higher modulation schemes are being examined in conjunction with longer spreading codes in order to
offset the reduction in data rate that is dramatically degraded by
the utilization of DS-CDMA. Finally, a real-time implementation of the proposed receiver algorithm in a three-node shallowwater network was successfully implemented in the summer of
2000 where the performance of the proposed receiver was tested
against TDMA protocols and multiuser/multistage approaches
to the multiaccess problem.

[10] W. W. Peterson and E. J. Weldon, Jr., Error-Correcting

Codes. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1972.
[11] M. B. Pursley, Numerical evaluation of correlation parameters for optimal phases of binary shift-register sequences, IEEE Trans. Commun.,
vol. COM-27, pp. 15971604, Oct. 1979.
[12] D. V. Sarwate, Crosscorrelation properties of PN and related sequences, Proc. IEEE, vol. 68, pp. 593619, May 1994.
[13] U. Madhow and M. L. Honig, MSSE interference suppression for direct-sequence spread-spectrum CDMA, IEEE Trans. Commun., vol.
42, pp. 31783188, Dec. 1994.
[14] S. L. Miller, An adaptive direct-sequence code-division multiple-access
receiver for multiuser interference rejection, IEEE Trans. Commun.,
vol. 43, pp. 17461754, Feb. 1995.
, Training analysis of adaptive interference suppression for
[15]
direct-sequence code-division multiple-access systems, IEEE Trans.
Commun., vol. 44, pp. 448495, Apr. 1996.
[16] C. N. Pateros and G. J. Saulnier, An adaptive correlator receiver
for direct-sequence spread-spectrum communication, IEEE Trans.
Commun., vol. 44, pp. 15431552, Nov. 1996.
[17] C. C. Tsimenidis, O. R. Hinton, B. S. Sharif, and A. E. Adams, An
adaptive array DS-CDMA receiver for a shallow-water asynchronous
multiuser network, in Proc. Oceans 99, Seattle, WA, Sept. 1999.
, Spread-spectrum based adaptive array receiver algorithms for the
[18]
shallow-water acoustic channel, in Proc. IEEE Oceans 2000, Rhode
Island, RI, Sept. 2000.
[19] S. Haykin, Adaptive Filter Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: PrenticeHall, 1996.
[20] B. Widrow, The complex LMS algorithm, Proc. IEEE, vol. 63, pp.
719720, April 1975.
[21] J. G. Proakis, Digital Communications. New York: McGraw-Hill,
1995.

Charalampos C. Tsimenidis was born in Greece in

1971. He received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in electrical
engineering from the University of Munich, Munich,
Germany, in 1997 and the M.Sc. degree in communications and signal processing from the University
of Newcastle, Newcastle Upon Tyne, U.K., in 1998,
and is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in
electrical engineering at the same university.
He is currently employed as a Research Associate
at the Underwater Acoustic Group at Newcastle University. His research interests include multiuser detection, estimation and spread-spectrum communications.

REFERENCES
[1] R. L. Pickholtz, D. L. Schilling, and L. B. Milstein, Theory of
spread-spectrum communicationsA tutorial, IEEE Trans. Commun.,
vol. COM-32, pp. 855884, May 1982.
[2] M. K. Simon, J. K. Omura, R. A. Scholtz, and B. K. Levitt, Spread Spectrum Communications Handbook. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994.
[3] S. Glisic and B. S. Vucetic, Spread-Spectrum CDMA Systems for Wireless Communication. Boston, MA: Artech House, 1997.
[4] G. Woodward and B. S. Vucetic, Adaptive detection for DS-CDMA,
Proc. IEEE, vol. 88, pp. 14131434, July 1998.
[5] C. Boulanger, G. Loubet, and J. Lequepeys, Spreading sequences for
underwater multiple access communications, in Proc. Oceans 98,
Nice, France.
[6] G. Loubet, V. Capellano, and R. Filipiak, Underwater spread-spectrum
communications, in Proc. Oceans 97, Halifax, Canada.
[7] Z. Zvonar, D. Brady, and J. Catipovic, Adaptive detection for shallowwater acoustic telemetry with cochannel interference, IEEE J. Oceanic
Eng., vol. 21, pp. 528536, Oct. 1996.
[8] M. Stojanovic, J. Catipovic, and J. G. Proakis, Phase coherent digital
communications for underwater acoustic channels, IEEE J. Oceanic
Eng., vol. 19, pp. 100111, Jan. 1994.
[9] M. Stojanovic and Z. Zvonar, Multichannel processing of broadband
multiuser communication signals in shallow water acoustic channels,
IEEE J. Oceanic Eng., vol. 21, pp. 156166, Apr. 1996.

Oliver R. Hinton was born in 1947 in U.K. He

received the B.Sc.(Eng.) and the Ph.D. degrees in
microwave circuits from University College London,
London, U.K., in 1968 and 1972, respectively.
He is currently a Professor in Signal Processing
and Head of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Newcastle,
Newcastle Upon Tyne, U.K. He has been a visiting
scholar to Colorado State University, Fort Collins,
and to Stanford University, Stanford, CA. His
research interests are in signal processing, digital
communications, and subsea acoustics.
He has published over 100 papers in academic journals and conferences,
and has managed over 27 research contracts of total value over 3M. He was
an invited lecturer on the CEC Advanced Course on Acoustical Oceanography,
a U.K. Representative at the SERC/MTD N+N Meeting in Brighton in March
1994 on U.K./U.S. discussions for a joint Research Programme for Cleaner
Seas, was an EC MAST III U.K. Expert Reviewer (invited) in November
1996, and has been member of various Conference Committees including
OCEANS98. Prof. Hinton is a member of the Institution of Electrical
Engineers (IEE) and has served on IEE Professional Group Committees E5
and E15.

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Alan E. Adams was born in Stoke-on-Trent, U.K.,

in 1949. He received the B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in
electronic engineering from the Polytechnic of
North Staffordshire, Staffordshire, U.K., in 1970 and
the research M.Sc. degree from the University of
Durham, Durham, U.K., in 1977 for the development
of a microprocessor based imaging system.
He is presently a Senior Lecturer with the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of the
University of Newcastle, Newcastle Upon Tyne, U.K.
He is the author of an undergraduate text on microprocessor systems. His current research interests center on the use of acoustic
signals in the marine environment; for communication, imaging and environmental measurements.
Mr. Adams is a corporate member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.

603

Bayan S. Sharif received the Bachelor and Doctorate degrees from Queens University, Belfast,
Belfast, Ireland, and from Ulster University, Ulster,
Ireland, in 1984 and 1988, respectively.
In 1989, he was a Research Fellows at Queens
University of Belfast, where he worked on parallel
programming algorithms for two-dimensional
signal-processing applications. He joined Newcastle
University, Newcastley Upon Tyne, U.K., in 1990
as a lecturer in electronic engineering, where he is
currently a Professor of Digital Communications
and head of the Communications and Signal Processing Research Group. His
research interests are in DSP algorithms for digital communications and image
processing.
Prof. Sharif is a Chartered Engineer and a member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.