Underwater optical wireless communication system enables high-speed wireless communication with visible light.
Our devices offer larger amount of data communication than conventional acoustic communication, and contributes to Offshore IoT development.
Technology
Existing wireless communication devices use acoustic wave, but the data transmission speed is not high enough as its’ maximum speed being several tens kbps. As electromagnetic waves used for network on land attenuates significantly in water, it was not applicable in underwater environment. So, until today, you have to bring underwater vehicles up to the dispatching vessel to collect large amount of data such as scanned images and HD videos. Underwater Optical Wireless Communication modem “MC series” enables tens Mbps speed and full-duplex communication by using less attenuating wavelength optical laser (blue and green visible lights) based on laser diode technologies.
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Shimadzu Corporation has been developing an underwater optical Wi-Fi system based on laser-diode technology, which was selected as a research theme for the "Nippon Foundation-DeepStar joint research and development program for offshore industry".
In the final test of the program, Shimadzu conducted a trial of the Wi-Fi system under open water environment. In the test, two tests, "measurement of communication distance and speed" and "demonstration of handover function among multiple Wi-Fi base stations", were performed on the coast of Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan and 30 meters deep in the ocean.
Shimadzu could confirm the system validity under subsea environment through the trial.
Shimadzu had participated in Nippon Foundation-DeepStar Joint Ocean Innovation R&D Program with Underwater Optical Wireless Communication Technology.
In the project, the communication test between a prototype of "Station" that created a hemispherical optical wireless communication area around the pool floor and underwater vehicle (ROV) which carried an Underwater Optical Wireless Modem was conducted. In the communication test, the camera image captured by the "Station" was transmitted to the ROV via optical wireless communication, and succeeded in transmitting the camera image without interruption even if the ROV moved freely in the pool.
The Underwater Optical Wireless Modem on ROV is "MC100", off-the-shelf product of Shimadzu.
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