The Netherlands are testing underwater WiFi

Applied sciences institute TNO in The Netherlands are testing underwater WiFi . This news came out today in the dutch Telegraph

The past few weeks for the Dutch coast TNO and the Army experimented with sending data via sound waves in the water. This technique should make it possible to be able to communicate with for example, a robot which examines mine on the sea bottom wirelessly.

I couldn't find more information on this but this should be some kind of breakthrough to wirelessely communicate with each other underwater.

So I can imagine if this really gonna work it could be having many applications, like using your waterproof IPad while diving...?

peace.

The Telegraph

reply to post by 0bserver1

It might work very very slowly! due to the simple thing called :

The laws of physics

These limit the frequency of EM that can propogate through water. That is why subs have to surface to communicate.

reply to post by yorkshirelad


But they use sound waves, the same as WiFi uses now? , I mean radio frequencies are sound waves to right?

reply to post by 0bserver1


Are these developers even considering the impact these frequencies can have on sealife? We all know not to tap on aquariums. Imagine the ocean filled with high bursts of sound waves. Lets hope they use frequenices low enough that won't affect sealife.

reply to post by guppy


Good point, I didn't thought about that.. It could indeed harm allot of sealife that depend on sound for navigation or finding food

Uhh, this has been around for quite some time.
en.wikipedia.org...

and yes some of the frequencies used by the navies of the world are lethal to marine life.

Originally posted by 0bserver1
Applied sciences institute TNO in The Netherlands are testing underwater WiFi . This news came out today in the dutch Telegraph

The past few weeks for the Dutch coast TNO and the Army experimented with sending data via sound waves in the water. This technique should make it possible to be able to communicate with for example, a robot which examines mine on the sea bottom wirelessly.

I couldn't find more information on this but this should be some kind of breakthrough to wirelessely communicate with each other underwater.

So I can imagine if this really gonna work it could be having many applications, like using your waterproof IPad while diving...?

Sound and radio are very very different. "wirelessly" does not describe wi-fi here, because wi-fi is a radio signal.

Instead, they're sending data with encoded sound, as they say they are. Very very different.

People have sent data underwater with sound waves for quite some time. However, there are a number of problems. The higher the frequency the sound, the faster it attenuates due to viscosity loss.

In addition, water currents, ensonified zones, background noise and reflections cause all sorts of issues with data integrity.

Finally, since you can't send a very high frequency sound through water for any appreciable distance due to viscosity dissipation, your data rate is always low.

Other than that, it's great.

Originally posted by 0bserver1
reply to post by yorkshirelad

 

But they use sound waves, the same as WiFi uses now? , I mean radio frequencies are sound waves to right?

No, not at all. Sound and radio are nothing alike.

they use short wave radio to send message's to subs underwater .Shortwave will travel right through the earth with enough power so waters not a problem .
Thing is its called shortwave for a reason . and cannot carry much information thus the Navy uses codes to give more meaning to a letter or group of letters .

Originally posted by midnightstar
they use short wave radio to send message's to subs underwater .Shortwave will travel right through the earth with enough power so waters not a problem .
Thing is its called shortwave for a reason . and cannot carry much information thus the Navy uses codes to give more meaning to a letter or group of letters .

VLF will go down around 30m in sea water, ELF a few hundred meters, but you wouldn't get to the bottom of oceans, and it's one way communications from land to sea anyway which is no good for wifi-style communications, or sending messages from a boat to underwater.

Sound waves are already used to communicate with subs at certain locations, when the sub is near, but again suffers from not great range.

Unfortunately, water is a problem.