Experimental Trials for the Dual Channel Acoustic Communication Protocol

This article describes the dual channel acoustic communication protocol (DCAP) and the results of its experimental trials. This open protocol has been developed as an extension of the SWiGacoustic standard proposed by the SWiG Working Group considering requirements and use cases. It enables networking capabilities, simultaneous low and high rate data transfer among acoustic nodes, and frequency division multiple access (FDMA) to the underwater channel. First, the protocol specification and the details of its implementation are described. Then, the methodology for the feasibility testing is presented, followed by the experimental trials at sea in two different environments: 1) confined and 2) open water. The results achieved show the feasibility of using this protocol to allow a network composed of acoustic nodes to simultaneously use low and high rate channels to exchange heterogeneous data through time division multiple access (TDMA) and FDMA.