Underwater Communication Through Magnetic Induction(MI)

Abstract

Wireless Underwater Communication Networks (WUCNs) have recently become a hot topic of research due to applications such as mine detection, navigation, and pollution monitoring. One-third of the earth’s surface is covered by water, making it a challenging environment for communications. Acoustic waves are currently the most common technology used in underwater communications, but this approach suffers from large attenuation and propagation delays. Less commonly used are electromagnetic waves (EM), which experience range limitations in water, and optical waves, which encounter scattering. In this thesis, we will focus on magnetic induction-based communication. Magnetic induction (MI) has several advantages compared to the commonly used acoustic, EM, and optical communication methods. For instance, MI does not suffer from multi-path fading or scattering, and the signal propagation delay is negligible. We will roughly estimate the achievable range, operation frequencies, bandwidth, path loss, capacity and distortions of the MI in conductive media such as water.