The Internet is an indispensable communication tool, since it connects tens of billions of devices around the world, yet it is difficult for us to connect to the network when we are in the aquatic environment. And it is that the deep sea is a border that we have not yet crossed completely.
Communication through water is not as simple as through air and space. It is possible with radio, acoustic and visible light signals. However, radio can only carry data over short distances, while acoustic signals support long distances, but with a fairly limited data rate. Visible light can travel far and carry a lot of data, but light beams require a clear line of sight between transmitters and receivers. Everything is limitations.
Now, a team of researchers from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, KAUST (Saudi Arabia) has developed Aqua-Fi, an underwater wireless system that supports Internet services, such as sending multimedia messages using LEDs or lasers. LEDs provide a low-energy option for short-distance communication, while lasers can carry data much further, but need more power.
How does it work?
The researchers built an Aqua-Fi prototype, detailed in their study published in the journal IEEE Communications , using green LEDs and a 520-nanometer laser. Both were used to send data from a small computer to a light detector connected to another computer.
The first computer converted photos and videos into a series of ones and zeros that were then transferred through a beam of light that was turned on and off at very high speeds to transmit the signal. The light detector detects the variation in the speed of light and translates it back into the machine language of ones and zeros. This, in turn, is converted by the receiving computer into the transmitted message or other multimedia content.
In the real world, Aqua-Fi would use radio waves to send data from a diver’s smartphone to a “gateway” device connected to his equipment. In the same way that a WiFi amplifier operates, this gateway sends the data through a beam of light to a computer on the surface that is connected to the Internet via satellite.
The scientists tested their system by simultaneously loading and unloading multimedia between two computers, placing them a few meters apart in static water. The maximum data transfer rate obtained was 2.11 megabytes per second and an average delay of 1.00 milliseconds for a round trip.
“This is the first time someone has used the Internet under water completely wirelessly,” explains Basem Shihada, the study leader.
When will it be available?
We still have to wait: “ Aqua-Fi will not be available until we overcome several obstacles. We hope to improve link quality and transmission range with faster electronic components. The light beam also needs to stay perfectly aligned with the receiver in moving water, and the team is considering a spherical receiver that can capture light from all angles. “
“We have created a relatively inexpensive and flexible way to connect underwater environments to the global Internet. We hope that one day Aqua-Fi will be as widely used underwater as WiFi over water,” concludes Shihada.
Referencia: “Aqua-Fi: Delivering Internet Underwater Using Wireless Optical Networks” by Basem Shihada, Osama Amin, Christopher Bainbridge, Seifallah Jardak, Omar Alkhazragi, Tien Khee Ng, Boon Ooi, Michael Berumen and Mohamed-Slim Alouini, 9 June 2020, IEEE Communications Magazine. DOI: 10.1109/MCOM.001.2000009
