Eco-friendly Communication through an Underwater Cognitive Acoustic Network

Abstract

With the growing demand of ocean exploration and protection, more and more manmade acoustic systems like underwater sensor networks (UWSNs) are deployed in
oceans. However, in oceans, there exist not only man-made systems but also natural
acoustic systems like marine mammals. Due to the unique frequency depending
attenuation feature of acoustic channel, both artificial and natural acoustic systems
share the same frequency band. To avoid the possible negative impact resulting from
anthropogenetic acoustic signal on marine mammals, we propose a framework of ecofriendly underwater cognitive acoustic networks, named ECOUCANs, using
underwater cognitive acoustic technology. ECO-UCANs includes four main functions:
spectrum management, eco-sensing, spectrum sharing and physical layer
reconfiguration. Based on these four main components, the network can smartly sense
and localize marine mammals. Once the marine mammals are localized, users in the
network can reconfigure the operation parameters to limit the negative impact on these
marine mammals. Based on the investigation of unique features of underwater channel
and marine mammals, we also illustrate challenges on the existing methods to UCANs
and propose possible solutions.