Wireless communication in harsh environments
Date of Award
2023
Document Type
Thesis
Publisher
Edith Cowan University
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
School
School of Engineering
First Supervisor
Iftekhar Ahmad
Second Supervisor
Daryoush Habibi
Abstract
The ability to communicate underwater is a lucrative capability for industries, academia and the military. In these sectors, underwater wireless communications (UWC) are used for a variety of applications, such as oil and gas exploration, the monitoring of undersea pipelines, oceanography, seismology, undersea surveillance, and the detection of mines. However, many of these undersea activities are deterred due to numerous challenges posed by the harsh underwater environment. Energy scarcity is one of the major challenges, as frequent recharging of underwater depleted nodes is not practical. Ensuring reliable and secure UWC is another major challenge since traditional techniques cannot be implemented due to energy shortages.
This thesis addresses the challenge of energy-efficient underwater communications and studies its implications for reliable and secure UWC. The thesis introduces new techniques that minimise energy consumption, extend network lifetime, and offer secure communications in UWC networks. Firstly, this thesis presents a hybrid multi-modal optoacoustic UWC technique that not only takes into account the variability in weather conditions that adversely affect UWC, but also the temporal changes in underwater traffic to select the best endto- end communication strategy and hence minimise UWC energy consumption. Second, in this thesis, a caching strategy is introduced that jointly works with renewable energybased charging of underwater nodes, which can significantly extend the optoacoustic UWC network lifetime. Third, a residual energy maximisation technique is introduced that can simultaneously improve communication security in optoacoustic UWC networks without sacrificing its energy budget.
Overall, this thesis contributes to this field of research by mainly investigating the energy aspect of UWC networks and by studying its effects on secure communications whilst introducing solutions to relevant research problems.
DOI
10.25958/n63r-p195
Access Note
Access to this thesis has been embargoed until 13th November 2024.
Recommended Citation
Islam, K. Y. (2023). Wireless communication in harsh environments. Edith Cowan University. https://doi.org/10.25958/n63r-p195