A Throughput Performance Analysis Method for Multimode Underwater Acoustic Communication Network Based on Markov Decision Process

Abstract

The multimode underwater acoustic communication network is a novel form of underwater acoustic communication that adjusts its communication mode to enhance overall performance. Current performance analysis methods are primarily applied to single-mode networks and assume uniform communication capability across all nodes, making them unsuitable for multimode networks. This paper investigates the multimode communication of the physical layer, considering factors such as the marine environment, the node transmitting sound source level, and the transmitting distance. A decoding conflict model is proposed to support multimode concurrent transmission scenarios. The communication mode is designed to be compatible with the channel and node characteristics. Additionally, using a Markov decision process, this paper establishes a performance evaluation and analysis model for multimode underwater acoustic networks to determine throughput performance limits in real underwater environments. Simulations across various scenarios validate that the throughput performance limits obtained by this method are more accurate under multimode networks, with an improvement in accuracy of over 67.5% compared to existing methods.