Researchers Developing 'Underwater Internet'
By Angela Moscaritolo October 16, 2013 04:50pm EST
University at Buffalo researchers are developing a
deep-sea computer network that may lead to improvements in tsunami detection,
offshore oil and natural gas exploration, surveillance, and pollution
monitoring.
"A submerged wireless network will give us an
unprecedented ability to collect and analyze data from our oceans in real
time," Tommaso Melodia, UB associate professor of electrical engineering
and the project's lead researcher, said in a statement. "Making this
information available to anyone with a smartphone or computer, especially when
a tsunami or other type of disaster occurs, could help save lives."
The framework Melodia and his team are developing would
transmit data from existing and planned underwater sensor networks to laptops,
smartphones, and other wireless devices in real time. It also would allow the
many disparate underwater communication systems around the world to communicate
with each other, effectively creating a deep-sea Internet.
Because land-based wireless networks rely on radio waves,
which work poorly underwater, agencies like the Navy and National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) use sound wave-based techniques to
communicate under the sea. The NOAA, for instance, relies on acoustic waves to
send data from tsunami sensors on the ocean floor to surface buoys, the
researchers explained. The buoys then convert acoustic waves into radio waves,
which can be directed back to land-based computers.
Many other systems around the world work similarly, but
it's difficult to share data between them because each system has a different
infrastructure. Melodia's framework would remedy this issue.
The system promises to be able to link together buoy
networks that detect tsunamis, which could lead to more reliable warnings. It
could also potentially help collect oceanographic data and pollution
information, encouraging researchers to work together and eliminate duplicate
sensors and other equipment.
The underwater network could also potentially help law
enforcement spot undersea illegal activity, such as drug smuggling through the
use of makeshift submarines.
"We could even use it to monitor fish and marine
mammals, and find out how to best protect them from shipping traffic and other
dangers," Melodia said. "An Internet underwater has so many
possibilities."
The researchers have already successfully tested the
system in Lake Erie. Melodia and his students will present their research
paper, "The Internet Underwater: An IP-compatible Protocol Stack for
Commercial Undersea Modems," at the International Conference on Underwater
Networks & Systems, which takes place from Nov. 11 - 13 in Taiwan.
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