Having access to the Internet under water is a goal that until now seemed certainly difficult to achieve. Because of this, a team of researchers from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, along with other scientists from the University of Waterloo in Canada, try to solve this problem with a new underwater Wi-Fi, called Aqua-Fi.
Aqua-Fi has been featured as a new system based on LED or laser technology which, in theory, will allow information to be sent much faster than other means of underwater communication such as radio, acoustic and light signals. This is how it works.
All about how Aqua-Fi works
The author and promoter of this idea is Basem Shihada, King Abdullah University, who makes it clear that the previously mentioned underwater communication means are useful but each one of them has its disadvantages.
Communication using radio signals only allows data to be transported over fairly short distances. Light signals have the ability to transmit information merely when there is clear visibility between the transmitter and receiver, which does not make it totally effective. And acoustic signals manage to send data over long distances but with a very limited speed, which also makes it not a complete and efficient communication method.
To better understand this, Aqua-Fi is used by the diver or the team that is underwater with their mobile protected in order to send the desired information, such as photos and videos. So that this data can be transmitted, there is a laser device to be on top of the diver’s oxygen tank, with which, through a microcomputer, the data becomes pulses represented in binary codes (0 and 1).
Thus, these pulses are sent and delivered (through the use of a 520 nanometer laser) to a photodetector located at the bottom of the ship, in order to be processed and obtain the information transmitted, which can then be sent over the internet via satellite routinely.
Shihada’s team, through their extensive investigative article, was able to specify in calm waters a peak speed of 2.11 Mbps and a latency of 1 millisecond for the transfer of files, which in itself is something really hopeful for the future of the project. Only time will tell if this ambitious plan will bear fruit for the community at large, since with more exhaustive work it will allow anyone to connect to their social networks or surf the internet underwater, if pollution and other aquatic problems do so. they leave, of course.
