Connectivity Technology Blog

Back in 2009, I wrote about advances in underwater wireless communications and the challenges involved in connecting underwater sensors and autonomous vehicles. At the time, much of the discussion centred on underwater acoustic sensor networks, where limited bandwidth, long propagation delays, multipath and high error rates created challenges very different from those encountered in terrestrial wireless networks. Nearly two decades later, many of those fundamental challenges remain. Earlier this year, I looked again at underwater communications and the challenge of ocean connectivity, including the growing interest in heterogeneous networks combining acoustic, optical and, where practical, radio technologies. There is unlikely to be a single underwater equivalent of Wi-Fi or cellular connectivity. Instead, different technologies occupy different parts of the range, data-rate, latency and power-consumption trade-off. A new research project from the University of Florida adds another i...