Wireless Over Water Wi-Fi Networks Emerge

One company that is on the forefront of Wireless over Water is Intellicheck Mobilisa (Port Townsend, Washington, AMEX: IDN). The company not only coined the phrase, but has built and tested what it calls Floating Area Networks (FAN). These FAN networks define Wi-Fi communication perimeters in harbors and ports. Once a boat enters these regions they are connected.

Through wireless transceivers mounted on boats and buoys, these networks enable high-speed ship-to-ship video, voice, and text communications without the need for satellites. And these buoys, since they’re also equipped with sensors, can send out alerts to every ship in network range.  Whether it’s an oil spill or a boating accident, everyone that is within the network’s perimeter can be notified.

So far to date, Mobilisa also reports that its wireless over water technology (WOW) also lets Navy ships communicate when they are within line-of-sight. And they can do it at a much lower cost than the satellite technology that they presently use.

The Littoral Sensor Grid (LSG) is one of the projects that Mobilisa has worked on with the Navy and the University of Washington. This sensor network uses Mobilisa’s high-speed wireless network to transmit environmental, video, acoustic and weather information from a network of sensor-equipped buoys.

Moblilsa’s WOW mesh Ad-Hoc networks are based on a long-distance Wi-Fi 802.11 communications technology, a technology that has the potential to reach out much further than present day Wi-Fi, on the order of tens of miles. And it is this technology that has the potential to lower the cost of Internet communications when traveling on rivers, lakes, seas and oceans.

And the reason why is these Wi-Fi networks, if placed in several thousand locations, could be arranged to form Wi-Fi sea-lanes.  Ships, or satellites could then serve as intermediary links within these networks. Or they could be connected to underwater communication cables that exist on the ocean floor today.

Another technology that Mobilisa has that might also play a role in water-based Wi-Fi networks is its in-motion antenna technology. This technology permits high-speed vehicles, such as high-speed ferries, to transmit and receive data over Wi-Fi when moving at top speeds.

In addition to the Littoral Sensor Grid, Mobilisa was central to the development of the Wireless High-Speed Data project for the Washington State Ferries. For that project, the company developed Wi-Fi communication services with a bandwidth above 25 Mbps, with simultaneous video feeds, and 99 percent reliability.

Mobilisa is not the only company that has developed wireless network technology. It lists its competitors in this market as Sea Mobile (Seattle, Washington), a company that is involved in cellular-over-the water services.

Sea Mobile and AT&T Mobility (Atlanta, Georgia) through their joint venture company, Wireless Maritime Services (Miramar, Florida) offer a maritime cellular phone service, complete with voice, web browsing, text messaging and email. The cellular-over-water services are now available on many cruise liners and ferry lines.  But to access them, you must have a GSM or CDMA based cellular phone and have cellular service with one of the 300 carriers worldwide. To sign up for the service you also need a roaming agreement with Wireless Maritime Services