A Study of the Seastar Underwater Acoustic Local Area Network Concept

Abstract

This research considers the "Seastar" concept of an underwater local-area network (LAN) having a central node and multiple peripheral nodes. The concept of operation for the Sea star LAN involves the delivery of large volumes of digital information from the peripheral nodes through direct acoustic communication links to a sophisticated central node for assimilation (e.g., beamforming, fusion). For a design range of 500 meters, link budget analysis in combination with parametric analysis evaluates physical-layer parameters including optimum carrier frequency, spectral bandwidth, modulation techniques, achievable bit rate, and energy budget. Performance data obtained from a prototype Seastar LAN constructed from existing acoustic modems guided the creation of a Seastar numerical simulation. Monte Carlo simulation studies examine the relative merits of networking strategies such as TDMA polling and token-based TDMA. Seastar is shown to meet the anticipated requirements for undersea LAN applications such as sensor networks, undersea vehicle swarms, and dive teams.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 2007
Accession Number
ADA475979

Entities

People

  • Bjorn E. Kersten

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Sensors
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acoustics
  • Communication Channels
  • Communication Systems
  • Computer Networks
  • Data Links
  • Data Transmission
  • Detection
  • Detectors
  • Frequency Bands
  • Local Area Networks
  • Modulation
  • Monte Carlo Method
  • Multiple Access
  • Network Science
  • Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
  • Sensor Networks
  • Unmanned Underwater Vehicles

Readers

  • Acoustical Oceanography.
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Computer Networking