Software-defined acoustic communications system

A system comprising:

• at least one transducer configured to transmit signals into and receive signals from an operating environment;
• a transceiver connected to the transducer, the transceiver having a transmitter module and a receiver module therein, wherein the transmitter module directs signals to be transmitted to the transducer for transmission into the operating environment and the receiver module receives signals from the transducer that were received by the transducer from the operating environment;
• a switch connected to the transceiver;
• a first and a second amplifier connected to the switch;
• a first filter connected to the first amplifier and a bandpass filter connected to the second amplifier;
• a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) connected to the first filter and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) connected to second filter;
• a digital system connected to both the DAC and ADC, wherein the digital system is one of a field programmable gate array (FPGA) processor and a micro-controller;
• and
• a processor connected to the digital system, wherein at least one of the digital system and the processor has a plurality of software modules stored therein, wherein an operating frequency of the at least one transducer is entered by an end user into the processor through a user interface, wherein the processor is configured to provide the operating frequency of the at least one transducer to the digital system, wherein a software module within the digital system configures the first amplifier, the second amplifier, the first filter, and the bandpass filter according to the operating frequency of the at least one transducer, wherein the system is configured, via one or more of the software modules, to probe and scan the operating environment for a range of possible frequency bands, communication protocols, data rates, and other parameters, to determine a center frequency, a bandwidth, and a modulation scheme about other unknown communication systems.