A flexible and modular platform for development of short-range underwater communication

Abstract

The development process of short-range underwater communication systems consists of different phases. Each phase comprises a multitude of specific requirements to the development platform. Typically, the utilized hardware and software is custom-built for each phase and wireless technology. Thus, the available platforms are usually not flexible and only usable for a single development phase or a single wireless technology. Furthermore, the modification and adaption between the phases and technologies are costly and time-consuming. Platforms providing the flexibility to switch between phases or even wireless technologies are either expensive or are not suitable to be integrated into underwater equipment. We developed a flexible and modular platform consisting of a controller and different front ends. The platform is capable of performing complex tasks during all development phases. To achieve high performance with more complex modulation schemes, we combine an embedded Linux processor with a field programmable gate array (FPGA) for computational demanding tasks. We show that our platform is capable of supporting the development of short-range underwater communication systems using a variety of wireless underwater communication technologies.