A Comprehensive Review on Wireless Technologies and Their Issues with Underwater Communications

Abstract

Since many years, the life and environment in underwater especially the oceans are being explored, yet there are many parts of oceans remained unexplored due to the particularities of underwater environment. The increasing interest in underwater exploration has paved way to the development of different technologies for underwater communication. Underwater wireless communication plays a vital role in the study of marine life, water pollution, monitoring of natural calamities, coastal surveillance, and to monitor various phenomena in underwater environment. Hence, the underwater wireless communication has become a key area of research for exploring underwater environment for a variety of applications. The primary underwater wireless technology uses acoustic waves, electromagnetic waves in RF band, and optical waves as communication carriers to transmit data in an underwater environment. This paper provides a survey of these communication technologies discussing their physical characteristics, compatibility and technical issues, thus enabling to understand use of these technologies for underwater communications. © 2021 IEEE.