AquaNodes: an underwater sensor network

Abstract

This paper describes an underwater sensor network with dual communication and support for sensing and mobility. The nodes in the system are connected acoustically for broadcast communication using an acoustic modem we developed. For higher point to point communication speed the nodes are networked optically using custom built optical modems. We describe the hardware details of the underwater sensor node and the communication and networking protocols. Finally, we present and discuss the results from experiments with this system.