The SWARMs Approach to Integration of Underwater and Overwater Communication Sub-Networks and Integration of Heterogeneous Underwater Communication Systems

The management of a heterogeneous mix of underwater vehicles needs a robust and reliable communication network, able to connect the remote command and control station (typically ashore or on board of a support ship) with nodes and vehicles in the deep sea. on the basis of this scenario, the infrastructure shall satisfy requirements such as: medium to extremely long distances between the control room and the area of operation; management of a variable number and type of nodes and vehicles (mobile, fixed, underwater, surfaced); a guaranteed bandwidth to send commands and receive platform status and tasks execution information with minimum latency; a high bitrate to transfer sensor data, pictures and videos in "near real time"; etc. Compared to the available solutions used nowadays for radio communication systems, the underwater environment imposes several constraints on the maximum achievable bandwidth and distance, drastically reducing data transfer rates. This means that the full communication network is a trade-off between different requirements and performances. The SWARMs project approach to this problem is to select, combine and integrate different and heterogeneous communication technologies, components and solutions, in order to obtain the best performances for the management and control of underwater vehicles during the execution of different missions and tasks. The network is mainly based on commercial components, but specific adaptations were made in order to fulfil the requirements of ad hoc underwater and overwater sub networks in maritime specific scenarios. Several experiments and sea trials have allowed the verification of the performance of the full network and the optimization of its configuration according to the mission needs.