Single-carrier with index modulation for underwater acoustic communications

Index modulation (IM) has emerged as a promising technology for future wireless communications due to its potential to enhance both spectral efficiency and energy efficiency of wireless communication systems in recent years. In this paper, we propose a single-carrier with index modulation (SC-IM) for underwater acoustic communications. Besides, to combat the severe channel effects, we present frequency-domain turbo equalization (FDTE) with sparse channel estimation for the SC-IM system. The proposed iterative receiver outperforms the conventional frequency domain equalization. The simulation and lake experiment results verify the proposed SC-IM method and demonstrate its efficiency.