An Underwater Data Acquisition and Transmission Testbed Based on BeiDou Satellite System (BDS) and Underwater Acoustic Communication Technology

During the past decade, the research of underwater acoustic sensors network have gained significant progress. With the deployment of UASNs, the acquisition and long-range transmission of underwater data becomes a challenge. Traditionally, the data from underwater sensors can be sent to terrestrial control center mainly by VHF (very high frequency) or satellite communication systems. However, a VHF communication system can only cover the area with a distance of 15-30km and a satellite communication system may cost a lot especially for a long-time-deployed sensor network. To effectively evaluate the performance of underwater networks and further transmit underwater data from open sea, in this paper, we develop an underwater data acquisition and transmission testbed based on BeiDou Satellite System (BDS) and underwater acoustic communication technology. With the help of the proposed testbed, we can conduct various tests including protocols evaluations and underwater application developments.