Eco-friendly Communication through an Underwater Cognitive Acoustic Network

Abstract

With the growing demand of ocean exploration and protection, more and more man-made 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 eco-friendly 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.