The Watermark manual and user's guide - version 1.0

Watermark is a benchmark for physical-layer schemes for underwater acoustic communications. It allows researchers and modem manufacturers to develop, test and compare algorithms for the physical layer under highly realistic and reproducible conditions. Watermark is a shell around the validated FFI channel simulator Mime, which is driven by at-sea measurements of the time-varying impulse response. Watermark is programmed in MATLAB and can be used under the Windows and Linux operating systems. This report serves as a user manual for Watermark version 1.0. It describes the available test channels, the format of the channel data, and the format of user-defined input signals. It shows how to pass these signals through the test channels, and how to retrieve the received signals. Examples of Watermark usage are provided. The simulation possibilities are governed by the available test channels. The initial release of Watermark is issued with channels measured in Norway (two sites), France, and Hawaii, offering three frequency bands (4–8, 10–18, and 32.5–37.5 kHz), single-hydrophone and array receivers, and run times varying from 33 seconds to 33 minutes. The benchmark can be extended with channels from different environments and frequency bands, either for own use or for general distribution, depending on the willingness of third parties to perform suitable measurements and share the data.