Acoustic data transmission offers a compelling alternative to Bluetooth and NFC by leveraging the ubiquitous speakers and microphones in smartphones and IoT devices. However, most research in this field relies on simulations or limited on-device testing, which makes the real-world reliability of proposed schemes difficult to assess. We systematically reviewed 31 acoustic communication studies for commodity devices and found that none provided accessible source code. After contacting authors and re-implementing three promising schemes, we assembled a testbed of eight representative acoustic communication systems. Using over 11000 smartphone transmissions in both realistic indoor environments and an anechoic chamber, we provide a systematic and repeatable methodology for evaluating the reliability and generalizability of these schemes under real-world conditions. Our results show that many existing schemes face challenges in practical usage, largely due to severe multipath propagation indoors and varying audio characteristics across device models. To support future research and foster more robust evaluations, we release our re-implementations alongside the first comprehensive dataset of real-world acoustic transmissions. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of rigorous on-device testing and underscore the need for robust design strategies to bridge the gap between simulation results and reliable IoT deployments.

翻译：声学数据传输利用智能手机和物联网设备中普遍存在的扬声器和麦克风，为蓝牙和NFC提供了一种极具吸引力的替代方案。然而，该领域的大多数研究依赖于仿真或有限的设备端测试，这使得所提出方案在实际环境中的可靠性难以评估。我们系统性地回顾了31项针对商用设备的声学通信研究，发现均未提供可获取的源代码。在联系作者并重新实现了三种前景较好的方案后，我们构建了一个包含八种代表性声学通信系统的测试平台。通过在真实室内环境和消声室中进行超过11000次智能手机传输实验，我们提出了一种系统化且可复现的方法论，用于评估这些方案在真实条件下的可靠性与泛化能力。研究结果表明，许多现有方案在实际应用中面临挑战，这主要源于室内严重的多径传播效应以及不同设备型号间音频特性的差异。为支持未来研究并促进更稳健的评估，我们公开了重新实现的代码，并发布了首个真实环境声学传输综合数据集。总体而言，我们的发现强调了严格设备端测试的重要性，并凸显了需要采用稳健的设计策略来弥合仿真结果与可靠物联网部署之间的差距。