This application claims the benefit of United Kingdom application ser. no. GB 0525428.9 filed Dec. 14, 2005, which application is fully incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to an underwater electromagnetic transducer system for use in communications, navigation or other systems.
Various underwater systems that allow communication whilst avoiding any physical contact are known. One of the most common is based on sonar techniques. A problem with such systems is that they cannot support high bandwidth information transfer. Such systems are also degraded by noise and interference from a number of sources. Other underwater communication systems use radio links, i.e. extreme low frequency electromagnetic signals, usually for long-range communications between a surface station and a submerged vessel. These systems typically operate in the far field using physically large electric field coupled antennas and support data rates of only a few bits per second.
To overcome some of the problems associated with radar and sonar, electromagnetic transmission has been proposed for underwater communications. This offers high bandwidth communication, but over relatively short ranges. WO01/95529 describes an underwater communications system that uses electromagnetic signal transmission. This has a transmitter and a receiver, each having a metallic aerial that is surrounded by a waterproof electrically insulating material. GB0511939.1 and U.S. 60/690,966 describe underwater communications systems that use magnetically coupled electrically insulated antennas.
EM transmission systems are immune to acoustic noise and do not suffer from multipath effects due to the rapid attenuation of the EM signals. However, the short range can be restrictive where one or more of the communicating systems are mobile.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an extended underwater electromagnetic transducer comprising an electrically insulated transmission line of significant length typically connected to a transmitter or receiver or transceiver system, the transmission line being such as to allow near-field communications with another transmitter or receiver or transceiver system.
Because water is a conductive media, electromagnetic signals experience relatively high attenuation when passing through it. Seawater is much more conductive than fresh water and hence exhibits a higher loss. In accordance with the present invention, by providing a relatively long transmission line, the through water signal path length can be significantly reduced. This is because signals can be captured in the near field, and so over a relatively short distance, and subsequently transmitted along the length of the transmission line. This is highly beneficial.
Preferably, the transducer allows communications between stations using electromagnetic coupling. To do this, two transducers are brought to within a suitable distance at some point along their length thus allowing communication to take place using electromagnetic coupling. The transducer performs two functions, acting firstly as the mechanism for coupling of the energy and secondly to act as a transmission line to conduct the electrical energy between the region of coupling and the communicating station.
The present invention relates to a transducer system optimised for the transmission and reception of electromagnetic signals underwater offering increased flexibility in the relative positioning of the systems. One or more of the systems that wish to communicate deploy an extended conducting transmission line, which also forms the electromagnetic transducer. This transmission line must be electrically insulated from the surrounding water. This type of transducer is needed because water is an electrically conducting medium. These transducers are of significant lengths, and act as radiators of the electromagnetic energy in transmission or as receptors when used to receive signals. These transducers allow for the conversion between electrical energy within the conductor and electromagnetic energy in the water. While these transducers may be of any length selected as appropriate for the application and carrier frequency, they would typically be greater than 1 meter in length. To gain maximum benefit, the length should be more than the maximum distance over which underwater electromagnetic coupling can occur, ideally at least double that distance. As will be appreciated, this length will vary depending, for example, on the transmission frequency and the composition of the water. A block diagram of a suitable system is shown in
The transmission line transducers 10 and 14 of
The system of
The elongate leaky transducer 10, 14 may take a number of forms. For low frequency operation the distributed transducer could be implemented simply as a single core, electrically insulated wire. This may be appropriate for frequencies below 1 MHz. As the frequency of the carrier increases, the wavelength decreases until the length that would be needed for the distributed transducer in practice would be several wavelengths long. At this point, rather than just using a transmission line, a waveguide cable, for example a co-axial cable, will be required to efficiently transport the signal from the coupling point to the transceiver. In this case, it will be necessary to modify the coaxial shielding to allow coupling of the EM signal. In one implementation helical slots may be cut in the shielding to allow coupling of signals into a co-axial cable for transport to the transceiver. The co-axial cable will be electrically insulated from the water and terminated in its characteristic impedance to prevent reflections. Another implementation may employ an electrically insulated twisted pair of wires, which are imbalanced to allow coupling of some energy into the surrounding water. This imbalance can be achieved by making the wires unequal in length or by terminating with mismatched load impedance for example. Further implementations are clearly possible where the transducer acts as both a conveyance for the electrical signal energy and allows coupling of a proportion of the electromagnetic signal energy with the surrounding environment. The actual implementation chosen would be selected based on the frequency of operation, the required length of the transducer and the distance that could be tolerated between the transducers. It should be noted that traditional transmission lines attempt to minimise any coupling to the surroundings.
The extended transducer systems in which the invention is embodied may be used for underwater communications. They may also be employed as part of a navigation system. For navigation, the systems would be typically deployed in one of the configurations above. However, the information transmitted and received would include elements and waveforms specifically for navigational purposes. This might include the known position of the base-station, timing signals and may be synchronised to other base stations. Here the extended nature of the transducer allows the system requiring the navigational information an extended range over which to navigate accurately.
A skilled person will appreciate that variations of the disclosed arrangements are possible without departing from the invention. For example, although the specific implementations of
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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0525428.9 | Dec 2005 | GB | national |
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