From: Tom O'Reilly Date: January 13, 2011 1:55:19 PM PST To: Tom O'Reilly Subject: CANON comms infrastructure notes Rajan, Maughan, O'Reilly Need communications software/infrastructure to enable tracking of water features.  Measurement platforms may include manned ships, AUVs, drifters, autonomous surface vehicles... Communication links include RF, cell, WiFi, Iridium, Globalstar, acoustic... Maintainability is key Onboard TREX computes trajectory required to sample/track patch in Lagrangian frame (Dorado receives patch position and velocity from ship or shore via RF or Iridium) Note that Iridium costs $$$ (so does engineering time though). But some assets last year made excessive use of Iridium - e.g. the ESP drifter sent SBD messages every 2 minutes) Check out delay-tolerant networking. CANON comm links include: 802.11 900 MHz (Freewave) Iridium SBD Globalstar messages Cell (future) Acoustic (future) ESP drifter sent messages at fixed 2 minute intervals  - sometimes faster (and more expensive) than necessary  - this could cause major backlog if simply relayed to Dorado Iridium modem  - Note that drifter's Iridium tracker can be remotely configured - should do this adaptively Globalstar messaging used for Stella drifters - flat yearly rate Reliability? Thom estimates ~30%, but I thought Gernot said is much better than that... Past: September 2010 - followed ESP drifter with WF, Zephyr, and Dorado. Comm links include: • WF-ESP: 802.11-ish • ESP-Zephyr: Iridium • Zephyr-Dorado: Freewave October 2010 - tracked patch with Stella drifters, Dorado; all-Iridium Future plans: March 2011: Test with Stella, Dorado, Zephyr April 2011: Stella, Dorado, Zephyr + ? Still not well-defined; probably similar to October 2010 but fewer platforms.  • Patch-following missions • OK to assume all-Iridium links in near-term; don't work on acoustic, Freewave, etc Dorado kill-switch app for DMO would be nice-to-have Sensor tracks - very useful for science planning • Based on quick-look/summary sensor data • Chlorophyll, salinity, temperature are key • Tethys does this nicely; Dorado quick-look channels are currently hard-coded Dorado surface dwell-time should not exceed five minutes ------------------------------ Thomas C. O'Reilly Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute 7700 Sandholdt Road Moss Landing, CA 95039 831-775-1766 oreilly@mbari.org http://www.mbari.org "The machine does not isolate man from the great mysteries of nature, but plunges him more deeply into them."    - ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPERY 
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