Top World Water Network Developments

Argos, a worldwide tracking and environmental monitoring program, monitors one of the largest international buoy networks. Over 3000 buoys in this network collect data about the worlds’ ocean and changes in its environment. Although these drifter buoys collect an enormous amount of data, the need for more ocean data and more ocean communications networks grows. And that’s not because the ocean is so vast, there are over 335 million square kilometers of water, but also because it is so deep; there are about 1.4 billion cubic kilometers of water in the ocean.

Besides Argos, there are numerous other buoy networks. Most just collect weather and water information. All for the most part are directly linked to satellite networks. The information that these buoy’s gather are transmitted via satellite and sent to central computers, where the data is stored in vast marine and weather databases.

Ships are also apart of the world’s water network. Satellites are also presently their main mode of communications. However ships, also use wireless radio communications for short distance communications. And today’s more modern ships have on-board Wi-Fi and cellular networks for crew members and passengers.

Near ports and harbors and on bays, rivers and lakes, satellite communications and VHF radio are still relied on for communications. However, lower WiFi deployment costs and improved WiFi technology along with a demand for economical Internet access and low cost video communications, has resulted in the availability of more and more inland waterway WiFi networks. However, for the most part these WiFi networks are used for environmental monitoring applications and are secure networks.

Below the water is also a bustling communications system. Underwater cables stretch across every major ocean and waterway. Fleets of submarines and their modern children, autonomous underwater vehicles, dart from buoy to buoy, exchanging data. Then its down to the seabeds of wireless sensors, where more data is gathered, devices reprogrammed, new sensors planted and aging sensors removed.

The demand for water network communications comes from a number of different industries. Among these are the oil and gas., the natural resources, the alternative energy, the fishing, cruise line, aquaculture, and the environmental monitoring industries. Closely affiliated with all these groups are university and government research centers and agencies. It is these research institutes and government agencies that collect, store and process all of the data from the expanding water network..

The trend in water network communications appears not to be more satellite communications or for that matter underwater cable networks, but instead wide area networks and local area networks and what could be called miniature area networks. And that’s because of advances in wireless network technology have extended range. Specifically, simply adding more wireless nodes, expands the range of the network..

WiFi stations along the shoreline are expected to be ground zero for the vast wireless network that may eventually extend across all of the oceans. These on-the-coast central WiFi stations, once connected between low-cost standard landlines and a network of buoys on the waterways have potential to completely by pass the need for expensive near shore satellite communications and eventually even long-distance satellite communications.

Although the advent of long distance WiFi doesn’t mean the end of satellite communications it does probably mean life will get a little more difficult for satellite service companies. And that’s because WiFi might remove a critical survival element that the satellite companies depend on, and that is the ability to increase sales and remain profitable.

Companies that are involved directly in the environmental monitoring market are center stage for the development of overwater and underwater water networks. And the reason is that they must eliminate expensive labor and transportation costs required to manually collect data. And often their needs are localized. So here WiFi works for them well and offers a significant return on investment.

Voda LLC (Saint Petersburg, Florida), a University of South Florida spin-off, is probably one of the better equipped companies to address the technology needs of the world water network. And that’s because the company has all the different puzzle pieces to put together water-based communication, energy and marine exploration stations.

The technology Voda has in its portfolio includes the latest water network technology, the latest alternative energy technologies, all combined with efficient power management control electronics and some of the most advanced marine electronic instruments.

Voda has linked up with Ampair, (Warfield Berkshire United Kingdom), a company that has devised a set of innovative alternative energy portable devices. Through Voda and Ampair, any type of water vehicle can be equipped with the latest solar cell , energy harvesting, and hydro –power technology. Enabling water vehicles to completely eliminate the need for any external power source.

Voda has also made use of the latest micro-electro-mechancial sensor (MEMS) technology to build a number of advanced instruments. One of which is a miniaturized mass spectrometer. Considered, the sensor of sensors, a mass spectrometer can identify almost any type of molecule or mineral.

Mass spectrometers are used in a variety of industrial and environmental applications. They are used extensively in the search for oil and methane deposits as well are central to spotting and tracking oil and chemical leaks. They are also invaluable for ecosystem life signature monitoring applications like ecosystem chemistry and bioprocess monitoring. Because Voda has also focused its technology attention on water communications, it is also able to effectively address the need to make mass spectrometers work reliable in an underwater environments.

Besides its mass spectrometers, Voda also offers its Polynas high bandwidth network buoy, which is the company’s flagship for sending new water sensors off to sea. Using 801.11 b/g communication and 802.11i security protocols, the WiFi equipped buoy has a communications distance of 2 miles The buoy comes complete with radio power of 14 dBm and is able to transmit at data rates up to 54 Mbps. It weighs 36 pounds and measures 70 inches high. To communicate with on-board sensors it uses an RS-232 port.

The Polynas can also be equipped with Voda’s WiFi color cameras, This not only lets remote operators of the buoy monitor logs of data from its on board instruments, but also lets a full color video be readily transmitted to the operators desktop.

Powered by Voda’s and Ampair’s solar, hydro, wave, tidal and wind power, the Polynas can be ever-expanded into an moving WiFi network of interconnected drifting and glider buoys. With individual WiFi nodes having a range of 2 radial miles, it is just a question of time before these and devices like them cover the world’s 140 million square miles of water into one interconnected network.

In a world where 200 million PCs and 1 billion cellular phones are sold every year, the idea of equipping the waterways with 70 million WiFi nodes doesn’t seem a long shot. More so, if one considers that 2 miles is not the end of the range of WiFi. As WiFi range increases as technology advances, the number of WiFi nodes needed decreases drastically. At a 20-mile range, only 7 million WiFi nodes are needed. Either way, market analysts see a market. Whether they’re right or wrong or not too far off, the reality of a world water network is here.