Wireline Quality Underwater Wireless Communication

Using High Speed Acoustic Modems

Xiaolong Yu, Ph.D.
LinkQuest Inc.
7933 Silverton Ave., Suite 717
San Diego, CA 92 126 USA
Email: xyu@link-quest.com

Abstract--The paper introduces LinkQuest Inc.‘s cutting-edge

high speed underwater acoustic modems. LinkQuest Inc.
combined recent advances in high speed digital communication
with broadband underwater acoustics in the development of the
high speed modems. Advanced Broadband Spread Spectrum
Technology results in dramatically increased data rate and
robustness and decrease in power consumption.The modems are
proven to perform at high data rate with virtually no
communication errors under ambient noise, ship noise from small
powerboats and large DP vessels and offshore drilling noise.

The paper describes the working principles and architectures of

the advanced modems and their interface to underwater
instruments such as Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers.
Performance results from various customer deployments such as
real-time monitoring of current profiles from Shell’s Ocean
Worker Platform are presented. Fig. 1: Model UWM 1000

I. INTRODUCTION presents the application scenarios and various trial and

deployment results of these modems.
LinkQuest Inc. of San Diego, California manufactures an
extensive line of cutting-edge high-speed underwater
acoustic modems. These new-generation modems are fast, 11. MODELS
consume very little power and are highly robust in field
deployments. LinkQuest designs and manufactures four different models
of modems for shallow water and deepwater
LinkQuest Inc. combined recent advances in high-speed environments. All the modems operate at a bit error rate of
digital communication such as Digital Subscriber Line [2] -’
less than 10 in standard mode.
and cellular communication with broadband underwater
acoustics in the development of the high speed modems. Model UWMlOOO, as shown in Fig. 1, operates up to 200
The proprietary “Broadband Spread Spectrum meters in depth and 300 meters in range. The data rate of
Technology” is implemented in a state-of-the-art DSP. the modem is 9600 bitdsecond in standard mode and
Tailored for various ocean environments, these modems 19200 bits/second in optional mode. The system operates
achieved dramatically increased data rate, robustness and within a frequency band centered around 35 kHz. It
decrease in power consumption compared with existing utilizes a directional transducer and has a very low
systems [l]. A bit error rate of less than IO-’ is transmit power consumption of 1 watt. This model weighs
consistently observed in the field. This is unprecedented about 4.2kg out of water and 2.3kg in water and is very
for underwater acoustic communication and is equivalent compact in size. Typical applications for this modem
to wireline quality. include real-time monitoring of sensor data in shallow
water of lake, surf zone and continental shelf. Because of
This paper introduces various models of the advanced its ultra low power consumption, the modem can easily
underwater acoustic modems and their typical application transfer hundreds of megabytes of data using a small
environments. It discusses the architecture, working battery pack.
principle and performance analysis of the modems. It also

0-7803-6551-8/00/$10.00 02000 IEEE 417

Model UWM2000 is developed to handle longer and
deeper deployments as compared to model UWMlOOO.
Although they are very similar, model UWM2000 can
operate up to 1000 meters in depth and 1500 meters in
range. Its transmit power consumption is also increased to
4 watts to reach longer range. The pressure housing is
marginally increased in weight and size. These modems
can be used in medium water depth from a buoy or surface
vessel to communicate with a moored instrument. It can
also be used from most of the oil rigs to monitor and
control underwater sensors. For some of the shallow to
medium water AUVs, the modem provides an excellent
way to transfer the images to the surface vessel.

Model UWM3000, as shown in Fig. 2, is a versatile omni- Fig. 3: Model UWM4000

directional modem. It operates at 2500 bitslsecond in
standard mode and at 5000 bitslsecond in optional mode. for the modem include image data transfer from AUV,
With selectable transmit power up to 20 watts, it could collecting data from underwater instruments towed from
reach 3000 meters in range. The 180-degree hemi-sphere surface vessels, monitoring and control sensors from deep
transducer provides extra flexibility in deployment. This water oil rigs and DP vessels.
system can be used to command, control and communicate
with underwater instrument and AUV when the range and 111. WORKING PRINCIPLE
the depth required by the application cannot be
accomplished with directional transducer. The system LinkQuest’s modems are based on Broadband Spread
operates at a frequency band centered around 10 kHz to Spectrum Technology [3]. The modems employ
minimize the impact from signal attenuation due to water advanced modulation scheme and channel equalization to
absorption. combat multipaths for improved signal to noise ratio [4]. A
high performance error detection and correction coding
UWM4000, as shown in Fig. 3, is a powerful deep water scheme is also implemented. These advanced techniques
modem. It utilizes a directional transducer to achieve a result in a highly robust system which guarantees a bit
high acoustic source level and reduce the impact from error rate of less than lo-’ . The transmit power
acoustic interference and noise. The modem reaches 4000 consumption is also significantly decreased as compared to
meters in range and rates up to 6000 meters in depth. This existing modems.
model offers data rate of 4800 bitslsecond in standard
mode and 9600 bitslsecond in optional mode. It operates at The modem’s electronics consists of 3 parts, a DSP board,
a frequency band centered around 17 kHz. Typical an Analog Front End (AFE) board and a DCDC converter
applications board (fig. 4). The DSP board serves as both a signal
processing module and a microcontroller. System timing
recovery, modulation, equalization, coding/decoding,
framing and serial interfacing are all conducted in the
DSP. The AFE board interfaced to the DSP board on one
side and the transducer on the other side. It performs signal
filtering and amplification functions. The DCDC
converter board converts a wide range of input voltage to
the operating voltage of the system and the transducer. The
modem has a 7-pin underwater connector which connects
the modem to an external power supply and serial port.
The serial interface supports RS-232 or RS-422.

LinkQuest’s acoustic modems are two-way, half duplex

modems that have a link layer communication protocol.
When no data is being transmitted the modem stays in
Sleep Mode whereby it periodically wakes up to monitor
Fig. 2: Model UWM3000 possible data being transmitted by the far-end modem.

418
 In many applications, the power consumption of the
RS-232lRS-422 surface modem is not as critical as the power consumption
of the bottom modem. If data are often uploaded from the
t bottom modem to the surface modem, the surface modem
may be configured to wake up frequently to ensure quick
receipt of data sent from the bottom modem, while the
+ bottom modem may be configured to wake up much less
frequently to conserve power. In applications such as
A U V W V , both the surface modem and the bottom
modem can be configured to wake up all the time to
t ensure the minimum possible delay.
EhAnalog Front End The beamwidth of the directional transducers used in

t* models UWMlOOO, 2000 and 4000 is between 60 to 80

degrees. It provides a good margin for relative movement
between surface and bottom modems. In case the surface
Transducer and the bottom modems are in violent relative motion the
Fig. 4: Hardware structure surface modem may move out of the beamwidth of the
bottom modem and lose communication temporarily.
When the modem is sleeping (i.e. prior to waking up in the When this condition occurs, the advanced algorithms
sleep mode) the power consumption is very low (i.e. incorporated in these modems will ensure the
approximately 8 mW). When no data is being completeness of the data transmission when the surface
transmitted, the modem will spend the majority of the time modem moves back into the bottom modem’s beamwidth
sleeping in the Sleep Mode to conserve power. The coverage. No data will be lost when the maximum
percentage of sleep time vs wake-up time in the Sleep specified beamwidth angle between two modems is
Mode is configurable. The more frequently the modem temporarily exceeded. This function is particularly useful
wakes up the quicker it is for the modem to acquire signals in cases where a surface ship is used to collect data from
from the other modem; however, this increases the power moored instruments or AWKJUV.
consumption of the modem. In order to explain the rest of
the working principles of the modem, we will use the The modem also employs an automatic rate adaptation
example whereby the bottom modem tries to send data to function. While the modem operates at standard high data
the surface modem. rate, it will automatically switch to a lower data rate under
extremely harsh environment. When the noise condition
If the bottom modem receives data from its RS-232 link improves, the modem will switch back to the high data
connected to the bottom instrument while it is in the Sleep rate. The automatic rate adaptation scheme provides an
Mode, the bottom modem will switch from the Sleep added insurance for extreme/unusual situation while
Mode to the Transmit Mode immediately and begins to avoiding difficult and sometimes‘ untimely human
transmit data. As soon as the surface modem wakes up and intervention on adjusting the data rate. The quality of the
detects the signal from the bottom modem, the surface communication (i.e. bit error rate) is not affected by rate
modem will switch from the Sleep Mode to the Receive adaptation.
Mode and start to receive data. After the data transmission
is complete, both the surface modem and the bottom LinkQuest’s modems provide a completely transparent
modem will retum to the Sleep Mode until more data are wireless RS-232 connection between two end equipment
available on the RS-232 line. as if they are directly connected through an RS-232 cable.
LinkQuest’s RS-232 is configured at 9600 baud, 1 start bit,
Each of the modems comes with 900k bytes of input data 1 stop bit, 8 data bit, no parity bit and no flow control.
buffer. This is to ensure that data from the RS-232 line do This is the default configuration most commonly used in
not get lost in the acoustic modem in case the many popular Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers and
communication channel between the two modems is CTD’s. No special modem set commands are needed to
temporarily degraded significantly. Once the channel operate the modem.
restores to sufficient operating conditions, the buffered
data will be transmitted to the surface modem in the order LinkQuest’s modems have been seamlessly integrated with
it was received, without any human intervention. some of the most popular underwater instruments. For
example, the user can use LinkQuest’s modems seamlessly

419
with various models of Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers
from leading manufacturers. The user can continue to use
the manufacturer's original software to configure the
profiler, monitor currents and upload large amount of data
from the instrument recorders.

IV. PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

First of all, the robustness of the acoustic modems is worth

emphasizing. All of LinkQuest's modem, working at
standard mode, operate at a bit error rate of less than
This is less than 1 bit error in 10 millions bits which sets a
new quality standard for underwater acoustic
communication.
0 Q5 1 1.5 2 25 3 35 4 4.5

The high data rate and low power consumption of the ~*O-%#?e)
modems open new possibilities for collecting data from
underwater instruments using acoustic communication. Fig. 6: the amount of battery power it takes to upload
The time and battery power spent on data collection various amounts of data
become more manageable.

In comparison with a 1200 bitdsecond, 20 watt transmit UWM4000, respectively (refer to fig. 6). This is only a
power modem (modem A in fig. 5 ) in continuous fraction of the power available in one standard D-cell
operation, the UWM 1000/2000 modems, working at battery. Fig. 6 compares the amount of power necessary to
standard mode of 9600 bitdsecond, will take about 20 collect various amounts of data between a typical modem
minutes to collect about 1 h4bytes of data whereas modem (i.e. modem A) and LinkQuest's modems, working at
A in fig. 5 will take about 140 minutes to collect the same standard mode.
amount of data. Fig. 5 compares the time it takes to collect
various amounts of data between a typical modem (i.e. V. MODEM APPLICATIONS
modem A) and LinkQuest's modem UWM1000/2000 and
UWh44000,working at standard mode of 9600 bits/second There are various applications where these advanced
and 4800 bitshecond, respectively. modems provide distinctive advantages.

The power consumed to collect lh4bytes of data is about 1. Real-time Monitoring of Underwater Sensor Data
0.3, 1.2 and 5.5 Watts for the UWh41000, UWM2000 and For this type of application, a LinkQuest modem is
installed on a surface buoy, a surface ship or an oil rig to
collect data from underwater sensors in real-time. Typical
sensor data include measurements of current, CTD, tide,
-,250
.-
E
E
0 wave and vibration, position or corrosion of underwater
structure. Obtaining sensor data from underwater cable
v
plow or tow body also falls in this category.

2. Periodical Data Collection from Moored Underwater

Instruments
L

P
To avoid costly retrieval and redeployment of underwater
sensors, a modem can be deployed with the sensors.
Periodically, a ship equipped with an acoustic modem may
visit the mooring site and collect the data from the
underwater sensor without ever retrieving the sensors. This
0
approach can drastically reduce the cost associated with
0 0.5 1.5 2 25 sensor retrieval and it allows for more frequent update of
dalasize(megabytes)
sensor data. It also allows changing the configurations of
Fig. 5: the amount of time it takes to upload various the sensors remotely based on changing requirements.

420
3. AW/UUV Data Upload, Command and Control finalized a purchase order from Global Marine Systems
AUV/UUVs utilize sensors such as sub-bottom profiler Ltd.
and side-scan sonar to conduct offshore survey. Getting
frequent update of sensor data is crucial to the quality of 2. Deployment with ADCP on Shell’s Ocean Worker
the survey and effectiveness of the AUV/UUVs for the Platform
survey work. LinkQuest’s high-speed acoustic modems Shell Oil Company has successfully completed
will allow frequent quality update of the survey data deployment of LinkQuest’s high-speed underwater
collected by the A U V W and therefore enhance the acoustic modems in the Gulf of Mexico in high-noise
productivity of the expansive survey work. The modems offshore drilling environment. Shell used LinkQuest’s
can also be used to command and control an AUV/UUV acoustic modems instead of cable to upload current
from a surface vessel. profiles from sub-sea ADCP in real-time. The reliability
and efficiency of the modems were validated in the test.
4. Underwater Telephone
Integrated with a vocoder and a microphone, the acoustic From November 3rd 1999 to December 19* 1999,
modems make up a high-quality digital underwater LinkQuest’s UWM2000 acoustic modem was deployed
telephone system. Since the modems operate at high data with a 300 kHz RDI Workhorse ADCP at 900 meters
rate, advanced vocoders used in modem cellular industry below sea surface from an actively drilling platform,
can be fully utilized which result in crystal-clear Ocean Worker (Fig. 7), in the Gulf of Mexico. The surface
underwater voice communication. modem, connected to a PC on the platform, was hung
about 30 meters below sea surface from the platform. Due
Currently, LinkQuest is actively pursuing opportunities in to the robustness of the modem, system installation was
all of the four areas above. easily accomplished with the help of an ROV.

VI. FIELD RESULTS The ADCP was configured to send current profile every 15
minutes. Overall, more than 4000 current ensembles (2.5
The modems have undergone extensive tests, trials and mbytes) of data were sent from the Workhorse ADCP.
long-term deployment. Three of the typical cases are While data were sent through the acoustic link in real-time,
discussed in details. the ADCP recorder also kept a record of all the current
ensembles. By comparing the logged current ensembles at
1. Trial conducted for Global Marine Systems the surface PC obtained through the acoustic link and the
On September 4*, 1999, LinkQuest conducted a trial for current ensembles in the ADCP recorder, it is concluded
Global Marine Systems of UK 15 miles west of Mission that there was no loss of any current ensemble and no error
Bay, San Diego. In the trial, a UWM2000 modem was in the data.
deployed 500 meters below ocean surface from a buoy. A
powerboat, installed with a modem 2 meters below ocean LinkQuest also demonstrated the seamless integration of
surface tied with a 30-pound weight, is used to collect data its modems with ADCPs. Shell was able to use the
from the bottom modem. manufacturer’s current monitoring software with the
acoustic link.
The boat was driven around the buoy at a speed of 2 knots
to collect 1.25 h4bytes of data. No error was found in the The success of the deployment prompted Shell to deploy
collected data. The payload (user) data rate achieved was more LinkQuest modems with ADCPs in the year 2000.
6600 bitsfsecond.
3. High Speed Data Link Modems on Hugin 3000 AUV
These modems are designed such that if the LinkQuest supplied high-speed data link modem to the
communication link between two modems is temporarily first AUV purchased by a commercial survey company,
broken due to poor channel conditions or excessive C&C Technologies of Lafayette, Louisiana. The Hugin
beamwidth angle, no data will be lost. To demonstrate the 3000, manufactured by Kongsberg Simrad of Norway, is
robustness of the modem during the trial, the boat was equipped with side-scan sonar and sub-bottom profilers
deliberately steered outside the beamwidth coverage of the and capable of conducting high quality survey at a water
bottom modem. A few minutes later, the boat was steered depth of 3000 meters.
back to within the beamwidth coverage and all the data
were collected without loss or error. LinkQuest’s modems, customized based on UWM4000, is
used to send image files from the side-scan sonar and sub-
The satisfactory performance of LinkQuest’s modems

42 1
 be placed into service during a commercial survey which
will be conducted by C&C Technologies in the second half
of the year 2000.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We want to thank Michael Vogel of Shell Oil Company

and Bob Hamilton of Evan-Hamilton for their assistance in
the deployment on the Ocean Worker Platform. Without
their belief in LinkQuest’s technology innovation and
logistical support, the success of the deployment would not
have been possible.

We express our appreciation to Jeremy Richardson of

Global Marine Systems Ltd for his lengthy trip to San
Diego from the United Kingdom for the trial.
Fig. 7: Deployment at Shell’s Ocean Worker Platform We are grateful to C&C Technologies and Kongsberg
Simrad for the exciting opportunity of providing the high
bottom profiler. The operation personnel on the surface speed data link to the first commercially purchased A W .
support vessel will use the images to check the status of We thank Phil Devall and his colleagues at C&C
the sonars and gain valuable up-to-date knowledge of the Technologies and Karstein Vestgard and Jon kristensen at
survey site. Kongsberg Simrad for their assistance.
LinkQuest has worked with C&C Technologies and REFERENCES
Kongsberg Simrad extensively to define hardware and
firmware solutions to enhance the efficiency of the 1. Porta, David, “DSP-Based Underwater Acoustic Data
acoustic communication and avoid acoustic interference in Telemetry”, Sea Technology, February 1996.
the AUV application. A special link layer protocol is 2. Sistanizadeh, K., Chow, P.S., and Cioffi, J.M., “Multi-
implemented. Acoustic interference issues were carefully Tone Transmission for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber
resolved using elaborate hardware and firmware schemes. Lines (ADSL)”, ICC93, pp. 756-760.
The effectiveness of the schemes was confmed in field 3. Ziemer, R.E. and Peterson, R. L., “Digital
tests. Communications and Spread Spectrum Systems”,
Macmillan, New York, 1985.
In the early summer of the year 2000, LinkQuest’s 4. Couch 11, Leon W., “Digital And Analog
modems undergone a series of successful tests on board of Communication Systems, 4fi Edition”, Macmillan,
the AUV in Norwegian Sea. The modems are expected to New York 1993.

422