UNDERWATER

COMMUNICATION USING
SONAR AND ACOUSTIC WAVES

CONTENT
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

INTRODUCTION
HISTORY
SONAR WAVES
ACOUSTIC UNDERWATER COMMUNICATION
ARCHITECTURE
BASICS OF ACOUSTIC UNDERWATER COMMUNICATION
FACTORS INFLUENCE ACOUSTICUNDERWATER
COMMUNICATIONS
RECENT ACTIVITIES SHOWS THE IMPORTANTANCE OF
ACOUSTIC UNDERWATER COMMUNICATION
ADVANTAGES, DISADVANTAGES AND APPLICATION
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES

INTRODUCTION
There

are lots of uses of underwater environment like

oceanographic monitoring, scientific exploration, disaster
monitoring and also especially for oil/gas field exploration.
In ocean could be highly time varying and spatialvarying, hence, posing major challenges to the design and
development of effective communication systems for
underwater applications.
Sonar and electromagnetic waves are different in nature.
Sonar waves are caused by a physical vibration of particles
and electromagnetic waves are caused by interference in an
electromagnetic field.

HISTORY

Before sonar the only technology

people used was to actually listen to
the water with different devices

In 1822 Daniel Colloden used an

underwater bell to find the calculations
of the speed of sound underwater in
Switzerland; this was a step towards
sonar
In 1906 Lewis Nixon was the first to
invent Sonar.
He invented it to detect icebergs
The picture to the right depicts its
early and simple use

SONAR WAVES

SONAR stands for SOund

NAvigation and Ranging.

It is a device that is used

mainly for the detection and
location
of
underwater
objects
by
reflecting
acoustic/sound waves.
There are basically two
types
of
sonar
communication
Active sonar communication
system
Passive
sonar
communication system

Active

sonar communication system

Half duplex active sonar communication

Full duplex active sonar communication

Passive

Sonar Communication System

ACOUSTIC UNDERWATER
COMMUNICATION ARCHITECTURE

In underwater network system,

a group of sensor nodes are
anchored to the bottom of the
ocean or may be interconnected
to one or more underwater
gateways by wireless acoustic
links

The horizontal transceiver is

used by the underwater
gateways to communicate with
the sensor nodes to send
commands and configuration
data to the sensors and/or
collect monitored data

1 D Architecture
Sensor

nodes are anchored to the

bottom of the ocean with deep
ocean anchors.
By means of wireless acoustic
links, underwater sensor nodes are
interconnected to one or more
underwater sinks
Sensors can be connected to sinks
by means of direct links or
through multi-hop paths

CHALLENGES IN 2-D
ARCHITECTURE

Sensing coverage: Sensors

should collaboratively regulate
their depth in order to achieve
full column coverage, according
to their sensing ranges. Hence,
it must be possible to obtain
sampling of the desired
phenomenon at all depths

Communication coverage:
Since in 3D underwater
networks there is no notion of
uw-sink, sensors should be able
to relay information to the
surface station via multichip
paths

3-D Architecture
Sensor

nodes float at
different depths in order to
observe a given
phenomenon.
The possible solution to
achieve different depths
would be to attach each
UW-sensor node to a
surface buoy, by means of
wires
Multiple floating buoys
may obstruct ships
navigating on the surface

BASICS OF ACOUSTIC
UNDERWATER COMMUNICATION
Acoustic

waves enable communications over longdistance since they suffer from relatively low absorption.
Underwater Acoustic communications are also affected
by high path loss, noise, multipath, high and variable
propagation delay and Doppler spread
Depending on their range, underwater acoustic
communication links can be classifieds very long, long,
medium, short and very short

RECENT ACTIVITIES
the

oil-rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico in

the Summer of 2010 could have been prevented
by acoustic sensing/actuating systems that can
be triggered by acoustic control signals.
In 2013 an inventor in the United States
unveiled a "spider-sense" bodysuit, equipped
with ultrasonic sensors and haptic
feedbacksystems, which alerts the wearer of
incoming threats; allowing them to respond to
attackers even when blindfolded

ADVANTAGES
is

used to find and identify objects in water.

It is also used determine water depth
(bathymetry).
Sonar was first used during World War I to
detect submarines.
The technology steadily improved, and by
World War II, was used once again for
militarypurposes.

DISADVANTAGES
Multipath

propagation
Formation of shadow zones
Small propagation speed
Noise
Limited band width

APPLICATION
Military

application:

Mines
Aircraft
Underwater security

Civilian

application:

Fisheries
Vehical location

Scientific

application:

Biomass estimation
Wave mesurement

CONCLUSION
At

last we find out that acoustic waves are best medium

for underwater communication.
The 3-D architecture is a better way to communicate
underwater.
But in acoustic waves there are many factors, which
affect the underwater communication.
To remove the effects of factors, which influence the
underwater communication further research going on .
so we can summarize in one line that acoustic waves are
better medium for underwater communication

REFERENCES
[1] J.Heidemann, Yuan Li, Affan Syed, Underwater Sensor
Networking:Research Challenges and Potential Applicat ion,
USI/ISI Technical Report ISI-TR-2005-603, 2005
[2] AntonioMansillaFabregat , Desenvolupament , proves
decampianlisideresultats en unaxarxa de sensors, Master in
Science in Telecommunicat ion Engineering &Management
.UniversitatPolitecnica De Catalunya, 2008.
[3] D.Pompili,T.Melodia,andI.F.Akyildiz. Three dimensional and
two dimensional Development Analysis foe underwater Acoustic
Sensor Network.Ad Hoc networks, 7(4); 778-790, June2009.
[4] L. Freitag and M. Stojanovic, Acoustic communications for
regional undersea observatories, in Proceedings of Oceanology
International, London, U.K., mar 2002.