Taking our ocean's pulse: Underwater Backscattering Networking
Channel: MIT Media Lab
Date: 2019-08-20

We present Piezo-Acoustic Backscatter (PAB), the first technology that enables backscatter networking in underwater environments. PAB relies on the piezoelectric effect to enable underwater communication and sensing at near-zero power. Its architecture is inspired by radio backscatter, which works well in air but cannot work well underwater due to the exponential attenuation of radio signals in water.

PAB nodes harvest energy from underwater acoustic signals using piezoelectric interfaces and communicate by modulating the piezoelectric impedance. Our design introduces innovations that enable concurrent multiple access through circuit-based frequency tuning of backscatter modulation and a MAC that exploits the properties of PAB nodes to deliver higher network throughput and decode network collisions.

More information at: https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/oceans

Note: Video has no spoken audio. Music plays throughout.