electronics

Article
Proof of Concept of the Use of the Parametric Effect in
Two Media with Application to Underwater
Acoustic Communications
María Campo-Valera 1, * , Ignacio Rodríguez-Rodríguez 2 , José-Víctor Rodríguez 1
and Luis-Jorge Herrera-Fernández 3

1 Departamento de Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena,

Antigones, Plaza del Hospital 1, 30202 Cartagena, Spain
2 Departamento de Ingeniería de Comunicaciones, Universidad de Málaga, 29010 Málaga, Spain;
ignacio.rodriguez@ic.uma.es
3 Engineering Faculty–Sound Engineering, Universidad de San Buenaventura, Bogotá Campus,
Bogotá 110111, Colombia; lherrera@usbbog.edu.co
* Correspondence: maria.campo@upct.es

Abstract: Nonlinear acoustics offers a new range of acoustic applications that are currently being
exploited. The parametric nonlinear effect—the occurrence of low frequencies with modulated
high-frequency emission—is of particular interest. This work provides a systematic exposition of the
theoretical framework on which the so-called parametric nonlinear effect is based. In relation to this
behavior is an analytical discussion of how to solve the problem for two cases: (i) nonlinear behavior
with modulation, and (ii) parametric emission of two monochromatic waves (bi-frequency). Subse-
quently, parametric emission experiments were carried out in air and water using the same transducer
to compare the results with those obtained theoretically. In this sense, directivity and attenuation mea-
surements are obtained. Conclusively, this research offers a proof of concept for underwater acoustic
communications. It is characterized by the transmission of a binary sequence through Frequency
Shift Keying (FSK) modulation, and the subsequent decoding of each received bit (either 1 or 0)
Citation: Campo-Valera, M.;
utilizing advanced signal processing with the cross-correlation technique. This paper accentuates the
Rodríguez-Rodríguez, I.; Rodríguez,
J.-V.; Herrera-Fernández, L.-J. Proof
significant potential of employing the parametric effect for specialized communication applications.
of Concept of the Use of the
Parametric Effect in Two Media with Keywords: ultrasound; parametric effect; nonlinear acoustic; signal processing; underwater acoustic
Application to Underwater communication; modulation
Acoustic Communications.
Electronics 2023, 12, 3459. https://
doi.org/10.3390/electronics12163459
1. Introduction
Academic Editor: Enrique
Romero-Cadaval Parametric acoustic sources use piezoelectric transducers and modulated ultrasonic
signals to produce highly directed sound in the audible and ultrasonic ranges over a wide
Received: 9 July 2023 frequency spectrum. This device is based on parametric generation and is named for the
Revised: 28 July 2023
low-noise parametric amplifier used as a replacement for helium-cooled 4 GHz masers in
Accepted: 12 August 2023
satellite signals in the 1970s. These amplifiers take advantage of nonlinearities exhibited
Published: 15 August 2023
by a varactor diode fed by a signal to be amplified and by a square pump signal to obtain
a new signal that has a frequency (called “idler”) equal to the sum, or difference of, the
signals that fed the varactor diode. This circuit creates a theoretical negative resistance in
Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.
the diode, which translates into a practical amplification of the signal [1].
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. These devices achieve very narrow directivity by minimizing sidelobe energy. There-
This article is an open access article fore, many applications use parametric generation to obtain this characteristic, such as
distributed under the terms and individualized music listening and in places where there are no physical barriers to delimit
conditions of the Creative Commons the sound.
Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// The first studies on the nonlinear interaction of underwater acoustic waves in the
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ ultrasound range (primary) to produce new waves (secondary) in the audible range was
4.0/). performed by Westervelt in 1957 [2], called “scattering of sound by sound”. He created

Electronics 2023, 12, 3459. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12163459 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics

Electronics 2023, 12, 3459 2 of 17

a nonlinear transduction technique capable of generating collimated sound beams with-

out sidelobes. Starting from the equations of fluid dynamics, he obtained the acoustic
pressure distribution of the (secondary) waves produced by the nonlinear interaction of
the two collimated (primary) plane waves; that is, from two tones of given frequencies f 1
and f 2 , a secondary low-frequency wave equal to the difference frequency of the primary
waves f d = | f 1 + f 2 | with similar directivity was produced. From this, he deduced the
far-field attenuation and directivity from the difference frequency, called “a parametric”.
This technique was applied to low-frequency sonar (sound navigation and ranging) used
to locate underwater objects.
After Westervelt’s study was published in 1963 [3], Berktay followed in 1965 [4]
and 1974 [5], with publication of a more precise development of Westerlvelt’s studies
for a spherical or cylindrical propagation of primary waves underwater. In addition, he
extended the analysis of two pure tones to the case of the “emission of a primary wave
modulated in amplitude at low frequency (envelope)”, which caused the medium itself to
demodulate the original signal in the low frequency (parametric), a process known as the
“self-demodulation” of the medium.
In 1975, Benneth and Blackstock [6] created an application of the parametric effect in
air using a circular transducer. They observed that when emitting with two frequencies,
18.6 and 23.6 kHz, the difference frequency of 5 kHz had a narrow beamwidth similar to
that of the primary frequencies with few secondary lobes. Finally, in 1983, Yoneyama [7]
proposed the idea of a parametric loudspeaker using 547 transducers and amplitude
modulation (AM).
In 2002, Pompei [8] (Sections 4 and 5), founder of the company Holosonics, estab-
lished himself as a pioneer in the creation of parametric loudspeakers. These have higher
directivity compared to conventional electrodynamic loudspeakers and very low distortion
levels, making them suitable for high-quality audio reproduction. Pompei demonstrated a
parametric loudspeaker using a large series of experimental measurements and consolidat-
ing the theoretical principles, which have subsequently been used by many companies for
commercial manufacturing.
In general, parametric acoustic sources have been the subject of considerable re-
search over the last 70 years [7,9–14], with the first application being related to sonar
systems [15–17] using water as the transmission medium.
Currently, several parametric communication systems have been proposed for dig-
ital data transmission [18–21]. These include the MAST project PARACOM [22], which
modulates parametric acoustic signals to achieve long-range communication.
For information transmission applications in water, acoustic communication systems
are being developed because sound waves are better adapted to the marine environment.
However, their propagation in an underwater acoustic channel has important limitations
due to the limited bandwidth, multipath, and refraction properties of the medium, among
others. For this reason, parametric communication systems are of particular interest since
the propagation of underwater acoustic waves is essentially a nonlinear process. Thus,
using the modulation theory proposed by Berktay in 1974 [5], the frequency difference f d
will propagate over long distances on the order of kilometers because its low-frequency
spectral component has the advantage of obtaining highly directional beams, thus reducing
multipath propagation.

Approaches
This work provides a deeper understanding of the dynamics of nonlinear acoustic
waves and their behavior in different air and water media, thereby providing insight
into the physics of sound propagation. It also highlights the possibility of exploiting the
parametric effect for communication applications. In this sense, by adequately selecting the
encoding, opportunities open up to develop underwater acoustic communication systems
with directivity and range that are considerably superior to those of traditional systems.
Electronics 2023, 12, 3459 3 of 17

The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 presents the phenomenology associated

with nonlinear propagation. Section 3 presents the analytical development by formulating
the nonlinear Westervelt equation and two solutions to the problem: exciting the medium
with two primary waves and using modulation. Section 4 presents the experimental
setup and developments in air and water for three difference frequencies f d of 10, 15 and
30 kHz, performing directivity and attenuation measurements in air and water. In Section 5,
the results of the previous measurements are presented, discussed, and contrasted with
theoretical models. In Section 6, the parametric effect is applied as a proof of concept
to underwater acoustic communications using an FSK-type parametric modulation with
experimental measurements. Section 7 deals with processing the signals received in the
water to obtain the detection of bits 1 and 0 using the cross-correlation (or cross-covariance)
method. Finally, Section 8 offers some concluding remarks.

2. Nonlinear Acoustic: Parametric Transduction Generation

To facilitate understanding and follow-up of this work, the authors present Table 1,
which describes the list of variables used.

Table 1. List of variables.

Variables Description
fd Difference frequency
LS Shock distance
co Small-signal sound speed
β Nonlinearity coefficient
B/A Nonlinear parameter
λp Wavelength of the primary frequency
k Wave number
M Mach number
v Local wave velocity
LA Absortion length
α Attenuation coefficient
LR Rayleigh distance
a Diameter of the active zone of the emitting transducer
~
∇ Partial derivative
ρ Absolute mass density
~u Absolute velocity vector
p Absolute pressure
µb Bulk viscosity
µ Shear viscosity
p0 , ρ0 , s0 Acoustic quantities
p s (r ) Pressure distribution of the parametric frequency
p p ( x, t) Pressure wave of the primary wave
fc Carrier frequency
E(t) Envelope defined by the modulating wave
fs Parametric frequency (twice of the f d )
pd (r, θ ) Acoustic field of the difference frequency
x (t) Digital modulation

When two waves of different frequencies, f 1 and f 2 are close to each other, have finite
amplitude and propagate in the same medium, each is affected by the other resulting in
the “scattering of sound by sound”. This interaction will produce new waves because of
its harmonics 2 f 1 , 2 f 2 or waves with the sum or difference f 1 ± f 2 of the initial frequencies
due to the nonlinearities of the medium. Therefore, the physical basis for this phenomenon
is nonlinear acoustics.
The difference frequency f d is the most interesting for our application due to its
relatively low absorption. The high-frequency 2 f 1 , 2 f 2 , and f 1 + f 2 , will attenuate strongly
and decay rapidly with increasing transducer range [5,19].
Electronics 2023, 12, 3459 4 of 17

Since the parametric effect is a nonlinear wave propagation and generation process,
it is necessary to remember the phenomena associated with the following characteristic
distances: shock, absorption, and Rayleigh distances [19,23].
1. Shock distance: In cases where a finite-amplitude harmonic wave of a given frequency
propagates, its profile changes progressively (deforms) due to the difference in propa-
gation velocity of its parts so that the points with higher pressure (crests) move faster
than those of lower pressure (valleys) [8]. Thus, this profile becomes more abrupt in
the propagation until it reaches a “sawtooth” shape when the wave travels the known
shock distance, as depicted in Figure 1. In the frequency domain, this phenomenon
results in the appearance of harmonics and subharmonics, or distortion.

Figure 1. Scheme for interpreting shock distance.

The shock distance LS is calculated as follows. Let u be the amplitude of the particle
velocity in the wave. It can then be shown that the phase velocity of the acoustic
wave crest is co + βu, and the phase velocity of the trough is co − βu, where co is the
small-signal sound speed, and β = (1 + B)/2A is the nonlinearity coefficient of the
medium. Initially, the crest of the wave is separated from its trough by a distance
λ p /2, and the crest takes time T to reach the trough [19,24,25], as in Equation (1):

LS + λ p /4 LS − λ p /4
T= = (1)
co + βu co − βu
This equation does not strictly define the shock distance LS , which was obtained by
considering the distance at which the wavefront becomes vertical at zero crossing [19,26].
Then it can be shown in Equation (2) that

co λ p ∼ 1
LS = = (2)
4βu βkM
where k is the wave number, and M is the acoustic Mach number M = v/co , where v
is the local wave velocity.
In the context of the parametric effect, the formation of shock waves is important
because it acts as a mechanism for transferring energy between different frequency
components of sound waves. This means that shock waves can affect the amplitude
and phase of other waves in the medium, generating new frequencies or changing the
amplitude of existing ones.
2. Absorption distance: As the wave propagates, each frequency that appears in the
medium is absorbed with different intensities by the medium so that the higher
frequencies are absorbed with different intensities. f 1 , f 2 , f 1 + f 2 , . . . (harmonics) will
decay faster than the difference frequency f d = | f 1 − f 2 |; therefore, the latter will be
able to propagate over greater distances. Consequently, the nonlinear generation of
new frequencies is limited to a distance concerning the transducer called interaction
distance or “absorption length”. Thus, this process can be visualized as the interaction
of a set of virtual acoustic sources (array) contained along the absorption length [27]
as depicted in Figure 2.
Electronics 2023, 12, 3459 5 of 17

Figure 2. Scheme for interpreting absorption distance.

This absorption length [19] is given by Equation (3):

1
LA = (3)
α
where α is the absorption coefficient for the primary frequency.
3. Rayleigh distance: This is the boundary that separates the near field from the far
field. Therefore, it is the distance from which the wave can be considered to change
from behaving as a plane wave to a spherical wave. From this distance, the wave
attenuates 6 dB when doubling the distance to the source [28]. When studying an
emission phenomenon, it is imperative to consider the proximal field of the transducer.
This consideration requires the inclusion of the main radiated frequencies, which
are predominantly enclosed within a cylindrical boundary defined by the Rayleigh
distance and the transducer surface area. Conversely, in the far field, the onset of
spherical radiation divergence is evident. Energy propagation occurs at an accelerated
rate [27,29], as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Scheme for interpreting Rayleigh distance.

This Rayleigh distance [19] is given by the Equation (4):

ka2
LR = (4)
2
where a is the diameter of the active zone of the emitting transducer. Once the above
distances are taken into account, mathematical models are used to help predict the
behavior of the acoustic field of secondary frequencies [30]. One such model, used in
the present study, is discussed below.

3. Theoretical Analysis: Westervelt Model

3.1. Problem Formulation
The parametric generation process presented here occurred in a fluid medium like air
or water. Therefore, the starting equations had to be the fundamental equations of fluid
dynamics, consisting of the continuity equation and the Navier–Stokes equation, which are
second-order approximations [26].
• Continuity equation: This is a mathematical expression that states that the total mass
of a gas cube of volume dV must remain constant in the face of volume variation, so it
is also called the mass conservation equation. Is expressed as follows in Equation (5):

∂ρ ~
+ ∇ · (ρ~u) = 0 (5)
∂t
Electronics 2023, 12, 3459 6 of 17

where ∇~ is the partial derivative in each of the Cartesian coordinates; ρ = ρ(~r, t) is the
mass density; and ~u = ~u(~r, t) is the velocity vector associated with the motion of the
fluid particles.
• Navier–Stokes equation is derived from the law of conservation of momentum (New-
ton’s Second Law) for viscous fluids in Equation (6):
   
∂~u ~ u +∇~ p = µ∇2~u + µb + 1 µ ∇(
~ ∇
~ · ~u)
ρ + (~u · ∇)~ (6)
∂t 3

where p = p(~r, t) is the pressure; µb the bulk viscosity; and µ the shear viscosity. The
~ u is called “the convective” or “transport acceleration” term.
term (~u · ∇)~
For the system to be complete, it is necessary to add one more equation: the equation
of state. Assuming barotropic fluids, where pressure depends only on density, the equation
of state (of second order) takes the form [26,31] in Equation (7):

p0 1 B 02
ρ0 = − p (7)
c2o ρo c4o 2A

where co is the small-signal sound speed (evaluated at the equilibrium state) and B/A is a
dimensionless quantity known as a “nonlinear parameter”.
Assuming that the fluctuations are relatively small—p0 /po , ρ0 /ρ, u0 /uo << 1—
disregarding dissipative effects, and relating Equations (5)–(7), the Westervelt equation is
obtained, and it describes the evolution of progressive waves in a nonlinear medium, as
shown in Equation (8):

0
1 ∂2 p 0 β ∂2 p 2
∇2 p 0 − = − (8)
c2o ∂t2 ρo c4o ∂t2

where β is the nonlinearity parameter which, for air, takes the value of 1.2 and for water, 3.6.
This parameter accounts for the capacity of a wave to generate harmonics in its propagation
and serves to characterize the nonlinear behavior of a material [32].
If successive terms of the equation of state are selected, other equations that solve
nonlinear acoustic problems have different ranges of validity [28].
To solve the Westervelt equation to obtain an expression for the acoustic field of
the parametric frequency and another for the primary wave that excites the medium, an
analytical solution to the Westervelt equation needs to be found, and this is given by
Equation (9), where ps is the secondary beam pressure (parametric signal).

1 ∂2 p2i e−ik|r−ro |
Z
β
p s (r ) = − · · dV (9)
4π ρo c4o ∂t2 |r − r o |

where the variables r and ro refer to the following Figure 4.

Figure 4. Geometrical configuration for interpreting the parametric effect equation [33].
Electronics 2023, 12, 3459 7 of 17

3.2. Analytical Solution of the Problem

As mentioned, the parametric effect can be approached in two ways: (i) by exciting
the medium with a suitably modulated primary wave or (ii) by the nonlinear interaction of
two monochromatic waves. In this work, we show the solution to the Westervelt equation
for both cases and the convergence between both solutions:
1. Amplitude modulation: This technique was studied by Berktay in 1965 [4]. It is a
general method for the nonlinear generation of an audible frequency from ultrasonic
frequencies. It consists of emitting a primary ultrasonic wave modulated in amplitude
by an audible frequency, which is demodulated in the medium through nonlinear
effects. This process is called self-demodulation [20,34,35]. The pressure wave of the
primary beam p p ( x, t) exciting the medium is shown in Equation (10):

 x h  x i
p p (t) = Pc e−αc x · f t − sin 2π f c t − (10)
c c
where Pc is the pressure amplitude of the carrier wave; αc is the absorption coefficient
of the carrier signal sin(2π f c t − x/c); and f (t − x/c) is the modulation envelope E(t)
defined by the modulating wave, the frequency of which is small compared with that
of the carrier signal.
By substituting the equation of the primary field (10) in Equation (9) and integrating
gives the pressure distribution of the parametric frequency along the radiation axis at
a distance r in the far field [36] by the following Equation (11):

∂2 2
p s (r ) = − A [ E (t)] (11)
∂t2
where A is a constant related to the amplitude Pc , the absorption of the medium α,
and the cross-sectional area of the transducer a. E(t) is the envelope of the function.

p2c β a2
A=− (12)
16 ρo α c4o r

For convenience, Equation (11) is rewritten as follows:

p2c β a2 ∂2 2
p s (r ) = E (τ ) (13)
16 ρo α c4o r ∂t2

This development based on the Berktay and Smith equation [36] provides a valu-
able approximation for steering near-axis beams. According to this equation, the
demodulated signal is proportional to the second derivative with respect to time of
the squared envelope E(τ ) of the carrier signal. This acoustic model is widely used in
parametric source preprocessing [37,38]. It should be noted that the characteristics of
the self-demodulated wave are influenced by the primary waves, and the amplitude
of the difference frequency is proportional to the square of the carrier frequency.
2. Nonlinear interaction of two monochromatic waves: This interaction is also called
the scattering of sound by sound [2], where the primary wave is expressed by the
following Equation (14):

p p ( x, t) = p1 ( x, t) + p2 ( x, t) = po · e−αr [sin(2π f 1 t − k1 x ) + sin(2π f 2 t − k2 x )] (14)

where, after some trigonometric calculations, we obtain Equation (15):

Electronics 2023, 12, 3459 8 of 17

 
f k
p p ( x, t) = po · 2 sin 2π d t − d x · sin(2π f c t − k c x )e−αx (15)
2 2
| {z }
E(t)

Thus, the primary wave is equivalent to a carrier wave of frequency f c = ( f 1 + f 2 )/2

amplitude-modulated by the half-wave difference frequency f d /2 = | f 1 − f 2 |/2.
These developments show that both techniques are related such that, the nonlin-
ear interaction of two monochromatic waves is a particular case of the amplitude
modulation method.
One of the characteristics of the parametric effect is that the parametric frequency f s
generated in the medium will be twice that of the f d . This was seen in the experimental results.
For the specific emission case with two harmonic waves, the far-field solution was
extended beyond the acoustic axis, i.e., considering parametric directivity. For this purpose,
by inducing Equation (15) in the theoretical expression of the Westervelt Equation (9), the
following expression showing the acoustic field of the secondary beam, was obtained as
can be seen in Equation (16):
 
aβp2o (2π )2 f d2 · ei(2π f d t−kd x) 1
pd (r, θ ) = − (16)
 
8πρo c4o rα kd
 
| {z } 1+ · sin2 (θ/2)
R (r ) | α {z }
H (θ )

In this equation, the part that depends on the radial distance from the source, R(r ),
is separated from the part that depends on the angle concerning the radiation axis, H (θ ).
From this solution, the following characteristics of the nonlinear field can be extracted:
• Directivity: The parameter f / f d sets the directivity of the parametric such that the
closer the mean primary and difference frequencies are the closer the directivity of the
difference frequency f d will be to f . Furthermore, for the same ratio f / f d , the higher
the absorption of the medium, the lower the directivity of the parametric since the
primary frequency does not propagate sufficiently for the parametric f d to acquire
greater directivity [27]. Figure 5 shows the directivity of parametric signals in air with
a mean carrier frequency of 200 kHz and different difference frequencies of 10, 15 and
20 kHz and a transducer diameter of 33 mm.

Figure 5. Theoretical directivity in air for a f d of 10, 15 and 30 kHz and a primary frequency of
200 kHz.

• Attenuation: Once the parametric is formed (a necessary condition since it is a far-

field solution), its attenuation is inversely proportional to the distance, which occurs
with the primary beam, except that it has more absorption than the secondary beam.
Electronics 2023, 12, 3459 9 of 17

Figure 6 shows the behavior of the parametric with the same frequencies as in Figure 5.
The gray vertical line in red marks the absorption distance for which Westervelt’s
theory is applicable.

Figure 6. Theoretical attenuation in air for a f d of 10, 15 and 30 kHz f d and a primary frequency of
200 kHz.

4. Experimental Set-Up
The experimental development implemented for measuring the parametric effect in air
and water is presented. In both cases, the difference frequencies were f d = 10, 15 and 20 kHz.
The expected parametric signals were double: f s = 20, 30 and 40 kHz. The projector or
emitter was the Airmar P19 piezoelectric transducer with a resonance frequency at 200 kHz
and a sensitivity in emission (Transmitting Voltage Response (TVR)) of 167 dB re µPa/V at
1 m. This frequency is used as the primary frequency f p . The emission surface is flat and
circular with a diameter of 33 mm.
All experimental measurements were carried out to characterize the directivity and
attenuation of the primary and secondary beams. The specific characteristics of the experi-
mental setups in the two media we worked on are detailed below.

4.1. Air Measurements

These measurements were performed in an anechoic chamber; however,only the
scheme for this experiment is presented since there are no photographic records of this
setup, as depicted in Figure 7. The acoustic receiver used was a Behringer ECM 8000
microphone, with a flat response and a sensitivity in reception (RVR) of approximately
60 dB re V/20 µPa. The distance between the transmitter and the microphone was 90 cm.

Figure 7. Schematic of the experimental setup for parametric measurements in air in an ane-
choic chamber.

4.2. Water Measurements

Figure 8 shows the water tank used for these measurements, the dimensions of which
were 1.12 × 0.96 × 0.51 m3 . For reception, the ITC 1032 hydrophone was used with a
receiving sensitivity (RVR) of −194 dB re V/µPa and a resonance frequency of 33 kHz.
Electronics 2023, 12, 3459 10 of 17

Figure 8. Experimental measurements of parametric signals in a water tank. (a) Scheme of the
experimental setup; (b) A photograph of the experiment with a transmitter-receiver distance of 38 cm.

In this case, the distance between the transmitter and receiver was 38 cm at the
closest point. At the same time, directivity was performed by moving the hydrophone
linearly perpendicular to the transducer axis so that each of the distances was subsequently
corrected to obtain a reliable directivity.

5. Analysis and Results of Measurements in Air and Water

5.1. Directivity and Attenuation in Air
The difference frequencies f d used for these measurements were tone-type signals emit-
ting at the primary frequencies shown in Table 2 at 90 cm between the emitting transducer
and the microphone. According to Westervelt, these experimental results are contrasted
with the theoretical nonlinearity model.

Table 2. Difference frequencies used for measurements in air together with expected parametric
frequencies.

Difference Freq. (kHz) Secondary Freq. (Param)

Primary Freq. (kHz)
f d = f1 − f2 (kHz)
f 1a = 197, f 2a = 207 10 20
f 1b = 195.5, f 2b = 209.5 ∼15 30
f 1c = 190, f 2c = 210 20 40

In Figure 9, it can be inferred that the experimental data fit the directivity according to
the Westervelt analytical model. This is because the primary frequencies were absorbed in
the medium (air), allowing the parametric to form and apply to the far-field approximation.
In this case, the primary beam was not measured since the microphone was only
sensitive in the audible range up to 20 kHz. Therefore, the expected directivity of the
primary beam is shown according to the expression of the flat piston [27] and that of the
secondary beam, according to the Westervelt theory.
Concerning Figure 10, which presents the attenuation results, the experimental mea-
surements for the frequencies were compared with the analytical Westervelt model (sec-
ondary beam) and the flat piston model (primary beam). It was observed that the Westervelt
theory was close to the experimental data in the last measured distances since this approxi-
mation was only valid in the far field of the parametric.
From the attenuation, the pressure amplitude decreased by 6 dB as the distance
doubled. Additionally, the amplitude of the parametric frequency followed a quadratic
dependence with that frequency, resulting in higher pressure levels for higher parametric
frequencies. However, it was essential to note that these values were influenced by the
distance at which the far field was formed.
Electronics 2023, 12, 3459 11 of 17

Figure 9. Parametric directivity emitted with the Airmar P19 transducer in air. The figures show the
theoretical and experimental secondary beams compared to the theoretical primary frequency. (a) 20,
(b) 30, (c) 40 kHz.

Figure 10. Parametric attenution emitted with the Airmar P19 transducer in air. The figures show the
theoretical and experimental secondary beams compared to the theoretical primary frequency. (a) 20,
(b) 30, (c) 40 kHz.

5.2. Directivity and Attenuation in Water

In these experiments, the modulation method was proposed. The tone-type frequen-
cies used for these tests in water were the modulating frequencies f m of 10 kHz with a
duration of 250 µs, 15 kHz at 167 µs, and 20 kHz at 125 µs, (a doubled parametric frequency
f s was expected) with a carrier frequency f p of 200 kHz. In these experiments, the sensitivity
of the hydrophone made it possible to measure both the primary and secondary beams.
Figure 11 shows the directivity for these frequencies. It compares the primary and
secondary beams, demonstrating that the generation of parametric signals at low frequen-
cies (secondary beam) presents a directivity with an opening angle similar to that of the
high-frequency primary beam.

Figure 11. Parametric directivity measured the Airmar P19 transducer in the water, the secondary
beam is compared with the primary beam. (a) 20, (b) 30, (c) 40 kHz.

Regarding attenuation, this study analyzed the generation of the secondary beam in
the medium as the distance between the projector and the hydrophone changed. With
an initial distance of 15 cm, the receiver moved away in steps of 4 cm until it reached a
distance of 55 cm from the projector emitter.
Electronics 2023, 12, 3459 12 of 17

In Figure 12, the measurements of both the primary and secondary beams are fitted
to the function ax −b . Neglecting absorption for a spherically propagating beam, a value
of b = 1 is expected. The value for the primary beam was approximately 0.89 for all three
studies; therefore, close to 1. However, the value for the secondary beam was much smaller,
0.69. This can be understood as the parametric generation of the beam in the medium,
which decreases less with distance.

Figure 12. Parametric attenuation emitting with Airmar P19 transducer in water, secondary beam
compared to the primary beam. (a) 20, (b) 30, (c) 40 kHz.

6. Applications to Underwater Acoustic Communications

This work used the parametric effect as a proof of concept for digital modulation
on a given carrier signal, which is useful for underwater acoustic communications. The
modulation used in this experiment consisted of an analog carrier modulated in amplitude
by a digital modulating signal, where the most basic binary symbol was the digit 1 or 0. A
generic modulation scheme includes the signals discussed below:
• E(t): This is the modulating signal that contains the information to be transmitted.
• y(t): Is the carrier signal that supports the frequency shift of the modulating signal;
often of the sine type, i.e., y(t) = sin 2π f c t.
• x(t): Is the modulated signal resulting from the modulation process, the product of the
carrier and the modulating signal; that is, x (t) = E(t) · y(t)
This analysis started from a waveform that was suitably modulated to parametrically
generate Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) coding in the medium.
Assuming that the carrier signal is an amplitude-modulated waveform and consider-
ing Berktay’s Equation (11), the proposed modulation scheme is shown in Equation (17).

x (t) = A p E(t) · sin(2π f c t) (17)

where the modulated signal x (t) is the result of the product of the carrier signal sin(2π f c t)
and the envelope signal E(t). In this study, the carrier frequency used was 200 kHz, with a
sampling rate of 20 Ms/s.
To obtain the signal of interest f s parametrically, it was necessary to start from the spe-
cific expression of the desired coding; that is, the modulating signal E(t) = sin(2π f m t), and
by applying Equation (11), we obtained the corresponding envelope. Next, the analytical
expression of the modulating signal E(t) was obtained through the parametric effect.

Frequency Shift Keying Modulation: Signal Processing

Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) modulation is a technique used in digital commu-
nications. It consists of an analog carrier signal, described above as y(t), and a binary
modulating signal E(t) that uses two modulating frequencies f m1 and f m2 , representing bits
1 and 0 [39]. The change from one frequency to the other, while maintaining a continuous
phase, represents the corresponding bit change, which is combined to reproduce the desired
binary code. A schematic of this modulation is shown in Figure 13.
Electronics 2023, 12, 3459 13 of 17

Figure 13. Schematic representation of FSK modulation.

To obtain parametric signals with this modulation, the frequencies f m1 and f m2 were
set to half the frequencies associated with each of the bits to be received. This nonlinear
acoustic technique of modulating a carrier signal with FSK produced another FSK at twice
the frequency, depending on the bit to be transmitted. The mathematical expression for
this modulation is given by Equation (18).

EFSKbit1 (t) = A p sin(2π f m1(bit1) /2t), t = tbit1 (18)

EFSKbit0 (t) = A p sin(2π f m2(bit0) /2t), t = tbit0

Therefore, the complete expression that parametrically determines the FKS modulation
for each of the bits 1 and 0 is expressed by Equation (19).

xbit1 (t) = A p EFSKbit1 (t) · sin(2π f p t), t = tbit1 (19)

xbit0 (t) = A p EFSKbit0 (t) · sin(2π f p t), t = tbit0

The signal processing for FSK-type nonlinear modulation was used with a carrier
frequency of 200 kHz, and two modulating signals linked at half the desired parametric
( f m1 = f bit1 /2 for bit 1 and f m2 = f bit0 /2 for bit 0), which was 20 and 15 kHz, respectively,
with a 1 ms duration for each bit (transfer rate of 1 kB/s).
Figure 14 shows the FSK-type signal to be obtained parametrically. This consisted of
two frequencies of 40 and 30 kHz.

Figure 14. Obtaining the FSK-type signal parametrically. (a) Bit 1 represents 40 kHz of the modulating
signal; (b) Bit 0 represents 30 kHz of the modulating signal.

In this work, FSK-type nonlinear modulation was achieved by using a carrier frequency
of 200 kHz and the two modulating frequencies f m1 and f m2 as discussed above. Thus,
this nonlinear technique modulated a carrier with FSK, resulting in another FSK of twice
the frequency.
Figure 15 shows bits 1 and 0 that were sent to achieve the parametric bits of Figure 14.
Electronics 2023, 12, 3459 14 of 17

Figure 15. FSK-type modulation emitted with a carrier frequency of 200 kHz and two modulating
frequencies of 20 kHz and 15 kHz. (a) Bit 1, 20 kHz; (b) Bit 0, 15 kHz.

Although digital modulation requires contiguous bits, these figures are presented
separately for better visualization and understanding. Section 7 provides the figure for
FSK-type modulation for sent coding.

7. Bit Detection by Cross-Correlation Method and Results

The low-frequency signal caused by the parametric effect had a lower amplitude than
the emitted signal, which made it challenging to distinguish it from background noise. To
demonstrate this empirically, it a parametric signal was recorded with a 6-bit sequence
(101001). The transmitting and receiving system operated at a sampling frequency of
20 MHz, and the bits were continuously emitted. Figure 16, shows the sent FSK-type
modulation emission.

Figure 16. FSK-type modulation emitted with the 6-bit sequence 101001.

The cross-correlation(or cross-covariance) method is defined as the shifted dot product

between two signals and is used to quantify the degree of similarity or interdependence
between two signals [40].
As predicted by the theory, these experimental results demonstrated that the paramet-
ric signal frequencies were twice those of the original signals. Cross-correlation indicated
the presence of specific signals in a recording using a matched filter. This method also
estimated the amplitude of the received signal [41].
It consisted of correlating a filter with an impulse response that matched the searched
signal with the recorded signal. Thus, if a similarity occurred, a peak would have appeared.
The technique was applied in our case by correlating the recorded signal with parametric
bit signals 1 and 0.
Figure 17 shows the correlation between these bits with the FSK-type modulation.
Electronics 2023, 12, 3459 15 of 17

Figure 17. Cross-correlations. (a) Between the signal received at 40 kHz and the expected bit 1;
(b) Between the signal at 30 kHz and the expected bit 0.

Since the distance between the transmitter and receiver was 30 cm, the first bit was
expected to be detected at 0.2 ms, and each subsequent bit was expected 1 ms later. In both
correlations, the dashed line represents the expected position of bit 1 and the solid line of
bit 0. Temporal precision in the detection of each bit was observed.
In addition, it was observed that the correlation peaks were quite wide (on the order
of the duration of each bit, approximately) because this type of modulation was, in essence,
a pure tone that changed frequency. Indeed, correlations with narrowband signals were
characterized by not being very efficient in detection or temporal discrimination. However,
the location of each bit was correctly obtained with a deviation of less than 1.5 % concerning
the expected instant.
The average amplitudes of the correctly detected bits 1 and 0 were 7.81 × 10−5 and
3.90 × 10−5 a.u. (arbitrary units). The average amplitudes of the false bits 1 and 0 were
1.16 × 10−5 and 4.79 × 10−6 . The ratio of the correctly detected bits to false bits gave us an
estimate of the bit error using the FSK technique. These values allowed us to establish a
detection threshold based on the correlation amplitudes after the corresponding filtering.
However, studies should be carried out to consider the variation of this bit error rate at
greater distances and with greater environmental noise to establish an optimal bit detection
threshold correctly.

8. Conclusions
8.1. For Measurements in Air
Westervelt’s theory was approximate when emitting with primary frequencies of 200
kHz, because at frequencies of this order, their absorption was high, which implied that in
a few meters the far-field situation of the parametric would be reached, and Westervelt’s
theory would be applicable.
Attenuation was lower concerning the primary frequencies. In contrast, when mea-
sured in the near field of the parametric, it presented a high level for distances close to the
transducer on the order of the near field of the same, and stabilized over long distances.

8.2. For Measurements in Water

Evidence of the parametric effect on the secondary beam was also clearly shown in the
directivity study, the results of which are presented in Figure 11. They show an opening
angle of ±10◦ for the secondary beam, while for the primary beam it was ±9◦ with a pitch
of 20 and 30 kHz, respectively. Therefore, both beams presented a similar directivity pattern
despite large differences in frequency.
In contrast, for the 40 kHz frequency, the aperture angle was ±18◦ versus ±9◦ for the
primary beam. Even so, if one wanted to obtain linear directivity for such a low frequency,
the result would be between ±70◦ .
Regarding attenuation, these are similar to the signals studied. The amplitudes of
both the primary and secondary beams decreased as the distance increased. However,
the attenuation of the secondary beam for the first case (20 kHz) attenuated less than the
primary frequency.
Electronics 2023, 12, 3459 16 of 17

In summary, all these effects show that the signal had been parametrically generated
and, therefore, this technique can be used for underwater acoustic communications in
circumstances where highly directional beams are preferred. In addition, the parametric
effect permits the reduction, for the most part, of the multiple reflections that can lower
communication quality.

Author Contributions: Conceptualization, M.C.-V.; methodology, M.C.-V.; validation, I.R.-R. and

J.-V.R.; formal analysis, M.C.-V., I.R.-R., J.-V.R. and L.-J.H.-F.; investigation, M.C.-V., I.R.-R., J.-V.R.
and L.-J.H.-F.; writing—original draft preparation, M.C.-V.; writing—review and editing, I.R.-R.,
J.-V.R. and L.-J.H.-F.; supervision, I.R.-R., J.-V.R. and L.-J.H.-F. All authors have read and agreed to the
published version of the manuscript.
Funding: This research received no external funding.
Institutional Review Board Statement: Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement: Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement: The data presented in this study are available upon request from the
corresponding author.
Acknowledgments: MaríaCampo-Valera is grateful for the postdoctoral program Margarita Salas—
Spanish Ministry of Universities (financed by the European Union’s NextGenerationEU). Ignacio
Rodríguez-Rodríguez would like to thank Plan Andaluz de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación
(PAIDI), Junta de Andalucía, Spain.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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