Abstract
The next frontier of maritime networking will see the deployment of large-scale buoy-based mesh networks, with an equal emphasis on both high-speed data transfer and energy-efficiency. One such challenging application is the operation of maritime seismic surveys for oil/gas exploration and academic studies. Large amounts of seismic data are generated at a rate of several Gigabits per second, by nearly 10,000–30,000 seismic sensors that are deployed on the seabed across an area of several hundred square kilometers in offshore oceanic environments. The task of monitoring existing reservoirs and identifying new oil and gas deposits require subsurface images of superior quality, which in turn are dependent on high-quality data for processing. Wireless technology can unlock real-time data transfer for rapid image-viewing, enhanced productivity, and reduced logistical costs. This interdisciplinary article outlines the challenges of marine seismic acquisition and the design of a buoy-based wireless backhaul network for high-rate data transfer over the ocean surface. Based on off-the-shelf IEEE 802.11 systems, a standards-compliant wireless buoy network architecture called Wi-buoy is proposed for real-time, scalable, and energy-efficient data delivery. In order to attain optimal power conservation, a Buoy-Based Power-Saving Backhaul (B-PSB) scheme is also proposed for specifying the operating parameters across all layers of the protocol stack. Essential aspects of the marine propagation environment are reviewed, and the performance of the proposed system is evaluated as a function of the antenna height, wind speed, compression ratio, and various flavors of the IEEE 802.11 standard. Furthermore, the use of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) is analyzed as an integral component of upcoming high-speed buoy-based networks in the maritime environment.
Highlights
Radio-equipped buoys have long been used for navigation and environmental monitoring in offshore scenarios
With the proliferation of devices and machines that are dependent on these resources, seismic surveys have been witnessing an increase in the survey area along with the density of seismic sensor nodes such as geophones and hydrophones [1]
A comprehensive overview is offered on marine seismic acquisition and the requirements imposed by a wireless buoy-based network architecture
Summary
Radio-equipped buoys have long been used for navigation and environmental monitoring in offshore scenarios. The application of wireless buoy networks in OBS acquisition has received little attention, where a few works [3], [4] have provided solutions for the delivery of small amounts of quality-control (QC) information and not the entirety of the seismic dataset in real-time This arises from the fact that unlike typical low-rate sensor networks, data is generated at a rate of several Gigabits per second across an area of 150 − 300 km2 [5], [6]! Various resource allocation problems are formulated and solved to minimize the total power consumption under a latency constraint, including modifications to the backhaul scheme proposed in our previous work for onshore seismic surveys [15] These enhancements in the B-PSB scheme include incorporating the routing aspect at the network layer, co-channel interference (CCI) mitigation approaches, the use of external nodes such as AUVs, and the impact of the marine propagation environment.
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