Modeling impulse response using Empirical Orthogonal Functions

There is a growing need for acoustic channel simulators. Among the reasons for this is the increased interest in underwater acoustic communications, but also the fact that measuring the characteristics of the underwater channel is very expensive. A channel simulator provides access to realistic channels, and allows us to compare algorithms and modulations under identical conditions. Channel simulation could be based on modeling or on measured channels. Model based simulation is difficult, but allows simulation under different conditions than measured. Horizontal underwater channels are characterized by time-varying multipath propagation. For simulations it is convenient to split the channel response into a deterministic and a random, time-variant part. In this paper we will consider the modeling of the deterministic part of the channel response.