Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE

International Conference on Information and Automation (ICIA)

Macau SAR, China, July 2017

Effect Analyses on Interference against Underwater

Acoustic Frequency Hopping Communication
Junkai Liu, Gangqiang Zhang and Junqing Zhang
National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on
Underwater Acoustic Antagonizing
Shanghai, 201108, China
Junkai_LIU726@163.com

Abstract—FH (frequency hopping) technique is widely used in

underwater acoustic communication due to its good performance
on anti-interference and anti-fading. In addition, communication
might encounter intentionally destruction such as jamming. So it
is necessary to make an effect evaluation on FH communication
under jamming. Firstly, FH communication system with three
typical jamming styles including partial band noise jamming,
multi-tone jamming and pulse jamming. And a new jamming
method called multi-tone hopping jamming against FH
communication system with fixed frequency suppression is
proposed. Their interference effects are analyzed. As a result, the
optimal jamming styles in the specific environment are Fig. 1 FH communication system model
recommended. Which may provide guidance to jamming pattern The data information is FSK modulated firstly and then
selection for the FH communication system in practices. carrier modulated. The carrier frequency is generated by
Index Terms - FH communication, Jamming styles, Interference frequency synthesizer that is controlled by the pseudo-random
effects, Jamming to signal ratio sequence, so the frequency jumps as the pseudo-random
sequence changes. After passed through the underwater
I. INTRODUCTION acoustic channel, the frequency hopping signal is dehopped,
Because FH communication has the features of passed through bandpass filter and demodulated. However,
anti-interference, anti-fading, it has been widely used in due to the transmission channel and the receiver frequency
underwater acoustic communication. During the past two synthesizer will introduce phase error, to ensure the phase
decades, the interference performance for radio frequency FH coherence of frequency hopping system, so the frequency
communication with jammer has been verified [1-4]. However, hopping system signal often adopts non-coherent
the interference performance for underwater acoustic FH demodulation [5].
communication still stays in the preliminary stage. Based on III. TYPICAL JAMMING TECHNIQUES
the research of interference technique for underwater acoustic
The jamming styles against FH communication include
communication, this paper made a preliminary study on the
partial band noise jamming, multi-tone jamming, pulse
interference effects of FH communication under jamming.
jamming and multi-tone hopping jamming. Interfering the
There are three main styles against FH communication
transmission signal can increase the bit error rate (BER), so
system including partial band noise jamming, multi-tone
that the transmission information cannot be correctly
jamming and pulse jamming. A new jamming method called
interpreted by the receiver.
multi-tone hopping jamming against communication system
A. Partial band noise jamming
with fixed frequency suppression is proposed. In order to find
The power of partial band noise jamming is concentrated
the optimal jamming styles in the specific conditions, we used
in some adjacent or non-adjacent frequency bands, and the
the above four jamming styles to interfere the FH
partial band noise jamming only interferes parts of the
communication system via simulations and lake test. By
communication frequency band. The partial band noise
analyzing the simulation\test conditions and interference
jamming is similar to the wide band jamming, which does not
effects, this paper try to find out the optimal jamming styles in
need more accurate information of the communication signal,
the specific conditions for future practical applications.
and only need to know about operation frequency bands. As
II. PRINCIPLE OF FH COMMUNICATION the bandwidth of partial band noise jamming is smaller than
that of the wide band jamming, if the jamming power was
Figure 1 presents the principle of FH communication
certain, the power spectrum density of the former is higher,
system. and its interference effect is relatively better.

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B. Tone jamming A. Interference effects of partial band noise
Tone jamming is the strategy that putting one or more Figure 2 is the interference effects of noise with different
jamming frequencies in the corresponding position of the bandwidth.
frequency spectrum. At the same time, the number and
location of the frequency will also influence the effect of the
multi-tone jamming. Multi-tone jamming includes single tone
jamming and multi tone jamming. Single tone jamming means
the single frequency is placed in the corresponding position of
the frequency spectrum; multi tone jamming refers to the
jamming style that multiple frequencies distribute regularly or
irregularly in the frequency spectrum. Compared to the partial
band noise jamming, the effect of multi-tone jamming is
better. Meanwhile, when adopting the specific frequency, the
influence to own communications is smaller, but it needs to
have a precise analysis of signal parameters.
C. Pulse jamming
Pulse jamming is similar to partial band noise jamming.
Fig. 2 the interference effects of noise with different bandwidth
The difference is that the former is the jamming signal that
As can be seen from the above figure, under the condition
exists in a part of the time, and the latter is the jamming signal
that bit error rate is 0.05. When noise bandwidth is 0.5 times
that its frequency exists in a part of frequency spectrum. Pulse
the signal bandwidth whose interference effect is the best.
noise has a wide frequency bandwidth, so that when the pulse
With bandwidth reduction or increase the interference effect
exists, it likes a broadband noise. Compared to other kinds of
declined.
jamming, it has a greater peak power under the same power
B. Interference effects of multi-tone jamming
conditions, because the pulse signal is not successive.
Figure 3, Figure 4 is the influence effects of multi-tone
D. Multi-tone hopping jamming
jamming with different frequency and different frequency
When the communication signal frequencies are
offset respectively.
obtained, the optimal number of jamming signal frequency is
randomly selected by the pseudo random code, and setting the
frequency conversion cycle, the frequencies of jamming signal
are selected randomly in each frequency conversion cycle, so
the frequencies are unpredictability. For a communication
system with no fixed frequency suppression function, the
interference principle is the same as the multi-tone jamming in
some frequency conversion cycle. The total interference effect
is the arithmetic mean of the multi-tone interference effect in
multiple frequency conversion cycles.
For a communication system with a fixed frequency
suppression function, since the jamming frequency in each
frequency conversion cycle is different, when the
communication system locks the jamming frequencies in the
previous frequency conversion cycle, but the jamming Fig. 3 the interference effects of multi-tone jamming with different frequency
frequencies change in the next frequency conversion cycle,
The suppression method has no effect in this frequency
conversion cycle. Its interference effects unchanged.
IV. JAMMING SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS
The parameters of FH system are shown in Table 1.
Table I the parameters of FH system.
Parameters Value
Carrier frequency (kHz) 4-10
Modulation type BFSK
Sample frequency (kHz) 96
Symbol length (ms) 4
The length of m sequence 3
Fig. 4 the interference effects of multi-tone jamming with different frequency
Coding scheme RS(3,7,3) offset

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 By analyzing the bit error rate curve in Figure 4, the D. Interference effects of multi –tone hopping jamming.
frequency number of the best interference effect is 2. Under Figure 7, Figure 8 is interference effects of multi-tone
the effective interference condition that bit error rate is 0.05. hopping jamming with different frequency and different
In the case that jamming to signal ratio is 4.5 dB, the frequency conversion cycles respectively.
interference effects is still valid. In this simulation, the optimal
number of jamming frequency is 1/4 times the frequencies
number used by FH communication system. It can be seen
from Figure 4 that the interference effects is worse with the
increase of the jamming frequency offset. When the absolute
value of the jamming frequency offset is less than 0.25 times
the instantaneous signal bandwidth, the interference effects is
not changed greatly.
C. Interference effects of pulse jamming
Figure 5, Figure 6 is the interference effects of pulse
noise with different duty cycle and different pulse cycle
respectively.

Fig. 7 the interference effects of multi-tone hopping jamming with different

frequency

Fig. 5 the interference effects of pulse noise with different duty cycle

Fig. 8 the interference effects of multi-tone hopping jamming with different

frequency conversion cycles
Comparing the interference effects of multi-tone hopping
noise in Figure 7 with the multi-tone noise’s in Figure 3. The
interference effects are almost unchanged. Under the condition
that the bit error rate is 0.05, the optimal number of jamming
frequencies is 2. However, the frequency selection of
multi-tone hopping noise is more flexible than the multi-tone
noise, so it is more harmful to communication system with
anti-jamming technology. As can be seen from Figure 8 the
interference effects of different frequency cycles are
unchanged.
Fig. 6 the interference effects of pulse noise with different pulse period
As can be seen from Figure 5, in addition to the pulse V. EXPERIMENT AND RESULT
noise whose duty cycle is 0.1, the interference effects of other
The underwater acoustic communication jamming test is
pulse noise are effective. Compared with their interference
completed in a test station on December 2016. The distance
effects, it can be seen that the pulse noise whose duty cycle is
between transmitter and receiver are 8 meters and their depths
0.5 can achieve effective interference under the condition that
are 2 meters from water surface. The distance between the
jamming to signal ratio is 6.8dB, and the interference effect is
jammer and the transmitter is 2 meters and also 2 meters from
the best.
water surface. Figures 9 is planning layout of Lake Test.
As can be seen from Figure 6 above, with the increase of
the pulse period, the interference effects is slightly enhanced,
but not very obvious.

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 operation. Under the condition that bit error rate is 0.05, when
noise bandwidth is the 0.5 times signal bandwidth whose
interference effect is the best. The reason is that with the noise
bandwidth decrease, the amplitudes of power spectrum get
bigger. So its interference effect is better, but if noise
bandwidth is so small, the jamming part of power spectrum of
signal is so small, so the interference effect is not good.
B. Interference effects of multi-tone jamming
Figure 11, Figure 12 is influence effects of multi-tone
jamming with different frequency and different frequency
offset respectively.

Fig. 9 planning layout of Lake Test

The experiment setup is depicted as below:
①Playing the communication signal on the computer 1,
and its amplitude no longer change, which is sent through the
transmitter. Receiving the communication signal at the
position of receiver with a hydrophone;
②Playing the jamming signal 1 on the computer 2, which
is sent by the jammer. Receiving the jamming signal at the
position of receiver with the hydrophone ,then calculate the
jamming to signal ratio； Fig. 11 the influence effects of multi-tone jamming with different frequency
③ The communication signal and the interference signal
are transmitted at the same time, and the mixed signal is
received at the receiver side by the hydrophone, and the
reception signal is stored in a collector.
④ By adjusting the magnitude of the jamming signal
source to control the jamming to signal ratio at receiver
side(using the oscilloscope to monitor the signal amplitude).
Until the jamming to signal ratio reaches the desired result, the
interference effect of the jamming signal 1 is completed;
⑤ By changing the interference signal pattern used in
step 2, and then proceeding to steps 2 to 4. Until the
completion of all jamming patterns of jamming experiments;
A. Interference effects of partial band noise
Figure 10 is the interference effects of noise with
Fig. 12 the influence effects of multi-tone jamming with different frequency
different bandwidth. offset
By analyzing the bit error rate curve in Figure 11, the
frequency number of the best interference effect is 2. The
reason is that with the number of frequency increase, the
jamming power be divided into these frequencies, so the
power of anyone is lower. When the number of frequency is
so more, whose interference effect is not good. But when the
number of frequency is so smaller, the jamming signal can
only jam some of the communication frequencies, the
interference effect is also not good. It can be seen from Figure
12 that when the absolute value of the jamming frequency
offset is less than 0.25 times instantaneous signal bandwidth,
the interference effect is not changed greatly. The reason is
that with the frequency offset increase, the effective power of
jamming signal is less.
Fig. 10 the interference effects of noise with different bandwidth
As can be seen from the above figure, when noise C. Interference effects of pulse jamming
bandwidth is equal to the signal bandwidth, whose result is Figure 13, Figure 14 is the interference effects of pulse
incorrect, which may be caused by ambient noise or improper noise with different duty cycle and different pulse cycle
respectively.

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 Fig. 13 the interference effects of pulse noise with different duty cycle
Fig. 16 the interference effects of multi-tone hopping jamming with different
frequency conversion cycles
Under the condition that bit error rate is 0.05; the optimal
number of jamming frequency is 4. Theoretically within some
frequency conversion cycles, whose interference effects are
the same as that of multi-tone hopping jamming, the reason
that caused the case maybe the changed ambient noise.
The interference effects of different frequency cycles are
less noticeable.
VI CONCLUSIONS
Table II summary of interference effects
Relative
Jamming types Best parameter optimizati
on
Fig. 14 the interference effects of pulse noise with different pulse period partial band noise 0.5B Multi-tone
As can be seen from Figure 13, the interference effect of Multi-tone
1/4 frequency number
hopping
pulse noise that duty cycle is 0.5 is the best. The smaller the jamming jamming,
Pulse jamming duty cycle 0.5 followed
duty cycle is, the higher the amplitude is. So the interference by
effect is better, but when the duty cycle is so small, the Multi frequency multi-tone
1/4 frequency number
hopping jamming
jamming part of communication signal is so small; the jamming
interference effect is not good. The relative optimization in Table II is obtained,
As can be seen from Figure 14 above, with the increase of the assuming the parameter information of the communication
pulse period, the interference effects are not chanced. system is accurate. To achieve the same bit error rate,
D. Interference effects of multi–tone hopping jamming Multi-tone jamming required jamming to signal ratio of 5dB,
Figure 15, Figure 16 is interference effects of multi-tone multi-tone hopping jamming required 5dB, the effects of two
hopping jamming with different frequency and different patterns are quite. Compared with other interference patterns,
frequency conversion cycles respectively. their effects is relatively good.
Table III interference effects in different conditions
Jamming
Simulation Lake test Analysis
types
Partial band Bandwidth
Bandwidth B/2 Consistent
noise B/2
Number of Number of
frequency frequency
Multi-tone 2,Frequency 2,Frequency Consistent
jamming offset<0.25 Btemp
Btemp offset<0.25
Pulse Duty cycle
Duty cycle 0.5 Consistent
jamming 0.5
Multi
frequency Number of Number of Partially
hopping frequency 2 frequency 4 consistent
jamming
Annotation: B is signal bandwidth, Btemp
is instantaneous frequency bandwidth.
Fig. 15 the interference effects of multi-tone hopping jamming with different
frequency

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 It can be seen from Table III that the interference effects
of partial band noise, multi-tone jamming and pulse jamming
via computer simulation are consistent with Lake Test result.
There are some differences between the lake test results of
multi-tone hopping jamming and the simulation results, which
may be caused by the change of the lake environment or the
decision threshold in the experimental data processing.
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