Platform Design For Node System Of High-speed Underwater Acoustic Communication Network

An Underwater Acoustic Communication Node is a fundamental unit of the UnderwaterAcoustic Communication Network, furthermore a complex mechanical-electronic systemintegrated by underwater acoustic transducer, signal processor, device interfaces, powersupply and control unit. The key steps to put an underdeveloped node into engineeringapplication are integrating the functional modules to construct a node platform, developingthe system alignment and field test to realize the major functions of underwater informationcollection, storage, and transmission.In this paper, researches are carried out by building the node system platform anddesigning the software and hardware of MCU (Microprogrammed Control Unit) duty circuit,ARM processing circuit and the plate circuit to meet the requirement of the UnderwaterAcoustic Communication Network.The430MCU duty circuit is designed. The basic functions of the node awakening,communication and dormancy are realized by using low power consumption chips and thesignal processing algorithm based on FFT. The theoretical MCU running time can be up to636days, and the technical target of working more than one year with system in dormancydetection mode achieved.New designed ARM processing circuit gave full play to the tailorable performance of theWindows CE6.0operating system. The design realized the protocol of data link layer andnetwork layer and made the hardware platform interface extension possible.To supply low noise controllable power for functional modules, the power supplymodule with isolated channels for each function module was developed. The plate circuit withconnection interfaces for each module gives full consideration to the noise interference andboard crosstalk, and more interfaces reserved for further system development.Integrating exist DSP, switchboard, amplifier modules and newly designed modules,whole assembly of the node system platform completed. Each module worked properly in thepool test. The basic functions of the communication node can be achieved.A point-to-point communication experiment of the nodes was carried out in LianhuaLake in Mudanjiang City. With the distance of3.1km, the OFDM algorithm can reach thehigh speed level. A networking experiment with4nodes was made in Qiandao Lake inHangzhou. Those nodes including sensor node, relaying nodes and gateway node built up amulti-jump type high speed underwater acoustic communication network and ran ALOHA (Additive Link On-line Hawaii system) protocol and MACAW (MACA for Wireless)protocol. By the experiment, the functions of the node system platform were verified and thetarget of the research was achieved.This paper’s research on the platform design of high speed underwater acousticcommunication network node has realized the basic network communication function, andlaid a foundation for the subsequent realization of nodes and underwater AD Hoc network test.It has important meaning for the development of underwater acoustic node and theconstruction of underwater acoustic communication network.