Motivation

A mandatory prerequisite for underwater networks is communication. Here, acoustics is the preferred choice, because radio and light are restricted to extremely low distances of a few meters at most. Unfortunately, existing hardware is typically prohibitively expensive (several thousand Euros per device), consumes too much power (several tens of Watts), or offers too low a data rate (a few bits per second only).

Goals and Contributions

To fill this gap, we developed a low-power, low-cost experimentation and research platform for acoustic underwater communication and ranging. This platform is the fundament for our research on medium access, routing, and localization protocols based on underwater acoustic communication. It allows us to conduct real-world experiments and therefore develop protocols based on realistic assumptions, giving a great advantage over purely theoretical work based on ideal simulation environments.