An autonomous underwater vehicle and SUNSET to bridge underwater networks composed of multi-vendor modems

Nowadays, underwater acoustic communication is an interesting topic of research. This is especially true in the case of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs): due to the limitations of the underwater environment, where WiFi and radio communications are limited, it is very important to rely on efficient and reliable tools for acoustic data exchange. Indeed, an underwater network of acoustic nodes can enhance the navigation and localization capabilities of one or more vehicles. However, cooperation and networking is not feasible in underwater networks composed of vehicles with different software architecture and multi-vendor modems due to the lack of communication standards. In this paper, the authors investigate the use of an AUV as a mobile bridging node within a network of fixed heterogeneous acoustic modems. In particular, MARTA AUV, developed and built by the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Florence, is employed to enable data transmission between modems of different manufacturers. The networking and the handling of multiple and multi-vendor modems are instead performed through the SUNSET Software Defined Communication Stack (SDCS) framework, developed by University of Rome La Sapienza jointly with WSENSE Srl. Different bridging tests have been performed in field to evaluate the feasibility of such approach, showing that AUVs can efficiently accomplish the role of gateway between the nodes of the network communicating through the SUNSET SDCS framework.