Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Underwater wireless communications (UWC) is attracting considerable attention due to the increased interaction of humans with the underwater world. This technology has a wide range of scientific, environmental, civil, and military applications, such as marine exploration, detection of man-made and natural environmental disasters, and submarine communications. With the recent industrial advancements in the internet of things (IoT) and its new branch, the internet of underwater things (IoUT), UWC has promising potentials and unprecedented applications. The extreme underwater conditions impose challenges on UWC. The technologies used for UWC include radio frequency (RF), optical, and acoustic. However, RF suffers from severe attenuation. Optical technology enjoys a wide bandwidth but operates in short range. Acoustic transmission can cover long range but with a limited bandwidth. With the increasing demand for UWC, many efforts have been made to address those limitations. In 2017, the NATO Centre of Maritime Research and Exploration has published the first standard for UWC. This protocol, JANUS, paves the way for a standardized IoUT. However, the latter is still in its early stages, with many venues for improvements. Our long-term objective is to design robust, autonomous, secured, and self-sustaining IoUT networks. The proposed network can accommodate numerous UWC devices of various applications and connection requirements. The developed network will be robust by providing reliable connections, even in turbulent underwater conditions. Novel learning algorithms will be designed, enabling self-organization and self-reconfiguration to maintain network autonomy. Additionally, security algorithms will be developed to immunize the network and make it resilient to the underwater conditions. Lastly, sustainability will be achieved through innovative energy harvesting solutions. To achieve the longer-term objectives, the program will undergo three parallel and integrated phases; each one has its own short-term objectives that tackle specific challenges of the UWC. The first phase will address network coverage and reliability. The second will focus on security. The last phase will ensure sustainability. The three bordering oceans and the 7% of the world's freshwater have a significant influence on Canada's people, flora, and fauna in many aspects, especially under the climate change. Designing efficient IoUT network will significantly facilitate the science, strategic planning, and the security of Canada. Additionally, this research is the first of its kind and will open new research directions for environmental, civil, and military applications. Several patents and high-impact journal and conference articles will be published. Moreover, the success of this program will enable innovation in industrial sectors, such as fish farming, IoUT prototyping and manufacturing of specialized autonomous underwater vehicles (UAV) equipped with UWC capabilities.