| NSF Org: |
CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | September 15, 2015 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | September 15, 2015 |
| Award Number: | 1527239 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Alexander Sprintson
CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems CSE Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering |
| Start Date: | October 1, 2015 |
| End Date: | September 30, 2018 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $199,978.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $199,978.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
300 TURNER ST NW BLACKSBURG VA US 24060-3359 (540)231-5281 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
VA US 24061-0001 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Networking Technology and Syst |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.070 |
ABSTRACT
Advancements in maritime communications are severely lagging behind its land counterpart. Existing marine communication technologies usually have very limited capacity and are extremely expensive to operate. Novel solutions are demanded to meet the imminent requirements for broadband marine mobile wireless access. The purpose of this project is to fill the void of marine broadband wireless communications by developing long-range self-powered ocean wireless communication links. The ocean wireless link is composed of compact, maintenance-free and low cost floating wireless base stations (BS) that can be simply dropped into the water. Once in the water, the BSs start to harvest energy from ocean waves and establish communication links with each other. Users' broadband traffic, then, can be delivered to the Internet through these links. This project will bring revolutionary change to the maritime communications. New maritime networked applications and operation scenarios that are infeasible but highly desirable in the past can be enabled by this technology. It can have significant impact on all aspect of ocean related industry, such as fishing, recreational boating, marine transportation, oil and gas industry, ocean scientific study, and national security and defense.
The project will focus on two thrust areas: Thrust 1 is about ocean wave energy harvesting. For a BS to provide large coverage range and high capacity links to its users and other BSs, the BS must consume a large amount of energy. Existing technologies are too large in size and hence are expensive and hard to be stabilized in rough ocean states and require frequent maintenance. This project solves this critical challenge by building a novel ocean wave energy harvester that can effectively harvest tens of watts of power on typical ocean states with a floating buoy of less than 1 meter diameter. Thrust 2 is about building the high capacity marine communication links. The constantly moving ocean waves can affect the capacity, stability and range of the backhaul links among BSs. In this project, we will study how to analyze and model the channel and design antenna and radio hardwares to handle the complex channel of ocean communication links. The researchers will also study the unique features of ocean communication links and their potential beneficial and/or harmful impact on network communications.
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Advancements in maritime communications are severely lagging behind its land counterpart. Existing marine communication technologies usually have very limited capacity and are extremely expensive to operate. Novel solutions are demanded to meet the imminent requirements for broadband marine mobile wireless access. The purpose of this project is to fill the void of marine broadband wireless communications by developing long-range self-powered ocean wireless communication links. The ocean wireless link is composed of compact, maintenance-free and low cost floating wireless base stations (BS) that can be simply dropped into the water. Once in the water, the BSs start to harvest energy from ocean waves and establish communication links with each other. Users' broadband traffic, then, can be delivered to the Internet through these links.
The project has focused on two thrust areas: Thrust 1 is about ocean wave energy harvesting. For a BS to provide large coverage range and high capacity links to its users and other BSs, the BS must consume a large amount of energy. The project has developed a low-cost, compact and maintenance-free prototype of energy-harvesting unit that is capable of generating more than 50 watts power on average year round. The energy harvestor uses a novel power takeoff mechanism so that it can effectively harvest tens watts of power on typical ocean states with a floating buoy of less than 1 meter diameter.
Thrust 2 is about building the high capacity marine communication links. The project developed a low-cost, low-power and compact communication unit that operates on TV whitespace. Field experiment shows that it can provide broadband network access to its users and its communication range is 10 times of other alternative technologies (e.g. WiFi) under the same transmit power. A small 25dbm EIRP transmit power is able to provide broadband 1.5km coverage range over water surface and consumes a mere 12 watts peak power. In addition, the project also reveals how constantly moving ocean waves can affect the stability and range of the backhaul links among BSs. Accurate theoretical models about the relationship between link stability and ocean states are developed. Precise prediction algorithm that reveals ocean surface displacement in the near future is also designed to aid the selection of routing paths in large ocean wireless mesh networks. A realistic ocean network simulator is also developed to facilitate the evaluation of communication network over ocean surface.
The results of this project demonstrate the feasibility of using marine mesh network to serve as a new type of broadband and low-cost maritime communication. New maritime networked applications and operation scenarios that are infeasible but highly desirable in the past can be enabled by this technology. It can have significant impact on all aspect of ocean related industry, such as fishing, recreational boating, marine transportation, oil and gas industry, ocean scientific study, and national security and defense.
Last Modified: 12/28/2018
Modified by: Yaling Yang
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