Reza Ghaffarivardavagh, Sayed Saad Afzal, Osvy Rodriguez, and Fadel Adib.2020. Underwater Backscatter Localization: Toward a Battery-Free Underwater GPS. InProceedings of the 19th ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks(HotNets ’20)
Nov. 4, 2020
Reza Ghaffarivardavagh, Sayed Saad Afzal, Osvy Rodriguez, and Fadel Adib.2020. Underwater Backscatter Localization: Toward a Battery-Free Underwater GPS. InProceedings of the 19th ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks(HotNets ’20)
Can we build a battery-free underwater GPS? While underwater lo-calization is a long-studied problem, in this paper, we seek to bringit to battery-free underwater networks [13,20]. These recently-introduced networks communicate by simply backscattering (i.e.,reflecting) acoustic signals. While such backscatter-based communi-cation enables them to operate at net-zero power, it also introducesnew and unique challenges for underwater localization.We present the design and demonstration of the first underwaterbackscatter localization (UBL) system. Our design explores vari-ous challenges for bringing localization to underwater backscatter,including extreme multipath, acoustic delay spread, and mobility.We describe how an adaptive and context-aware algorithm mayaddress some of these challenges and adapt to diverse underwaterenvironments (such as deep vs shallow water, and high vs low mo-bility). We also present a prototype implementation and evaluationofUBLin the Charles River in Boston, and highlight open problemsand opportunities for underwater backscatter localization in oceanexploration, marine-life sensing, and robotics.