Mobility Overwater Communications Shore-to-shore (s2s) Shore-to-vessel (s2v) Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (auv) Tidal Fading Two-ray Model Ieee802.11

External authors:

• Pedro M. d'Orey ( Universidade do Porto , Instituto Politecnico do Porto )
• Pedro M. Santos ( Instituto Politecnico do Porto )
• Manuel Ribeiro ( Universidade do Porto )
• Joao Borges de Sousa ( Universidade do Porto )
• Luis Almeida ( Universidade do Porto , Instituto Politecnico do Porto )

Abstract:

Wireless communications increasingly enable ubiquitous connectivity for a large number of nodes, applications and scenarios. One of the less explored scenarios are aquatic ecosystems, specially when enabled by nearshore and short-range communications. Overwater communications are impaired by a number of distinguishing dynamic factors, such as tides, waves or node mobility, that lead to a widely fluctuating and unpredictable channel. In this work, we empirically characterize near -shore, overwater channels at 2.4 GHz under realistic conditions, including tidal variations, and relatively short TX-RX separations. To this end, we conducted experiments in a coastal estuarine region and on a harbor to characterize Shore -to -Shore (S2S) and Shore -toVessel (S2V) communication channels, respectively, and to identify major factors impairing communication in such scenarios. The empirical results show that constructive/destructive interference patterns, varying reflecting surface, and node mobility (i.e. travel direction and particular maneuvers) have a relevant and noticeable impact on the received signal strength. Thus, a set of parameters should be simultaneously considered for improving the performance of communication systems supporting S2S and S2V links, namely tidal variations, reflection surface changes, antenna height, TX-RX alignment and TX-RX separation. The results useful provide insights into realistic S2S and S2V link design and operation.