Error Characterization of Underwater Acoustic Channels Based on the Simple Fritchman Model

Burst errors are often observed in the practical underwater acoustic channels because of the frequency selective fading, leading to the reliability performance degradation of the underwater acoustic communications. This paper proposes a coding channel model based on the simple Fritchman model for describing the burst error statistics of the underwater acoustic communications. The error-free run distribution, a special error statistical parameter, is derived from a measured error sequence and denoted with the curve fitting of the exponential function terms, yielding the simple Fritchman model with the fitting parameters. The burst error distribution and the block error probabilities are then calculated with the model and compared with the experimental values. It is shown that there is a good agreement between the calculated and the measured values. The coding channel model can be used for the design of the error-correcting code and decoding algorithms of the error control schemes for the underwater acoustic communications.