Aqua-Fi: Wi-Fi underwater



Aqua-Fi: the new underwater wireless communication system


 

Aqua-Fi: Wi-Fi underwater The Wi-Fi connection is not transmitted the same way over the water, which makes it difficult for divers and divers to receive or transmit information wirelessly to the surface. To try to solve it, a team of researchers from the Universities of Waterloo in Canada and the University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia have presented Aqua-Fi, a new experimental system based on laser technology that would allow sending information through water more fast. The research has recently been published in the IEEE Communications magazine under the name 'Aqua-Fi: delivering the Internet underwater using wireless optical networks and sending live data to the surface.' And despite the fact that Wi-Fi technology is found in millions of devices, it is still difficult to have a wireless connection that works properly underwater. Basem Shihada, lead author of the research, explains that "academia and industry want to monitor and explore underwater environments in detail." With an alternative to Wi-Fi that works correctly underwater, sending information will be much more fluid. Until now, underwater communication is possible using radio, acoustic and light signals. In the case of radio waves, there is the problem that they only reach very short distances. The acoustics have more range, but the data rate is limited. The technology these researchers believe is ideal is visible light, but underwater is the challenge of needing a clear line of sight between transmitter and receiver. Radio waves This is where Aqua-Fi comes in, a system that starts with the diver sending data (photos or videos) from his protected mobile. This data is transmitted as WiFi radio waves to a device mounted in the diver's air tank. At this point, through a microcomputer, which can be a Raspberry Pi, the data is converted into pulses of light representing zeros and ones in binary. These pulses are sent to the surface using a 520 nanometer laser, for long distances of more than 20 meters deep, or an array of green LEDs, for shorter distances, of less than 10 meters.
Laboratory tests of the Aqua-Fi system

Pulses of light are received at the surface by a photodetector at the bottom of a ship. Here a computer can process the data and obtain the information. Once arrived at this point, from the ship the information can be sent over the internet on a regular basis, via satellite. The researchers have managed to use the Aqua-Fi system to upload and download multimedia content between two computers located a few meters away, in calm waters. They obtained a maximum transfer speed of 2.11 Mbps and a latency of 1 millisecond for communications. "It is the first time that anyone uses the Internet completely wirelessly underwater," Shihada explains. While they still have many challenges ahead. Researchers must continue to work to adapt to the scattering effect of light in water and improve reception. Although "we have created a relatively cheap and flexible way to connect underwater environments with the internet," their creators defend.

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