Sim-source OBN acquisition is a hot spot in seismic exploration.There are three coding methods:time delay,phase,and scan length,for land vibrator data.Offshore seismic exploration uses air guns,and thus only time delay coding is feasible.The point is how to encode time delay series for de-blending.We propose a quantitative coding criterion for uniform random time distribution based on normal distribution constraints.The optimal time series is constructed using target function constraints,and the features of other three random time distributions are investigated in common detector gathers.Iterative inversion in the FKK domain is per-formed for de-blending,and single-shot tests show better performance of optimal time series than of other three distributions.A 3D offshore survey shows good results of data separation using the time delay series constructed based on the optimal criterion.Re-search results offer technical support to source parameter optimization in OBN acquisition.