Iterative Per-Vector Equalization for Orthogonal Signal-Division Multiplexing over Time-Varying Underwater Acoustic Channels

Orthogonal signal-division multiplexing (OSDM) is a promising modulation scheme that provides a generalized framework to unify orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) and single-carrier frequency-domain equalization. By partitioning each data block into vectors, it allows for a flexible configuration to trade off resource management flexibility with peak-to-average power ratio. In this paper, an OSDM system is proposed for underwater acoustic communications. The channel Doppler effect after front-end resampling is modeled as a common time-varying phase on all propagation paths. It leads to a special signal distortion structure in the OSDM system, namely, intervector interference, which is analogous to the intercarrier interference in the conventional OFDM system. To counteract the related performance degradation, the OSDM receiver performs iterative detection, integrating joint channel impulse response and phase estimation, equalization, and decoding in a loop. Meanwhile, to avoid inversion of large matrices in channel equalization, frequency-domain per-vector equalization is designed, which can significantly reduce the computational complexity. Furthermore, the performance of the proposed OSDM system is evaluated through both numerical simulations and a field experiment, and its reliability over underwater acoustic channels is confirmed.