Underwater communication gets turbo charged
Ottawa, Ontario (June 11th, 2012) - RBR Ltd. is pleased to announce a groundbreaking leap forward in the development of inexpensive long-distance underwater communications: the MLM-1000 Inductive Mooring Line Modem.
During a recent joint field trial conducted in Buzzard’s Bay, Massachusetts, with McLane Research Laboratories, Inc., RBR's MLM-1000 surpassed a critical milestone in innovation and technology. The test involved laying one mile of jacketed mooring line across the seabed between two vessels. The McLane Moored Profiler (MMP) controller was deployed at the seabed, while communications were established aboard another vessel using principles of inductive coupling. With the RBR MLM-1000, a seamless data transfer ensued at 4800 baud. The success of this modem test was made possible by the support of Oceans Observatories Initiative (OOI) funding.
McLane has integrated the MLM-1000 into their MMP in order to capitalize on its capacity for high-speed data transfers and a byte/watt ratio that delivers more scientific data measurements without costly energy consumption. The MLM-1000 is an energy efficient modem that operates as a transparent serial line extender. Available as an add-on accessory to RBR CTDs as well as other submersible instruments, it is also adaptable to any OEM devices with a serial-port.
Michael Mathewson, General Manager of McLane Research Laboratories Inc., praised the MLM-1000, stating, "The availability of a high speed inductive modem will allow scientists and engineers that deploy moored profilers to transfer data faster and profile more frequently. The integration of the MLM-1000 was completed efficiently due to the strong support from RBR engineers."
President of RBR, Dr. Greg Johnson, commented that, "Working with McLane has been a painless process, made simple by the fact that our modem is simple to use. Integrators are able to get inductive communications running in a few minutes from opening the box; and our design philosophy of non-interference with the serial stream ensures that there is almost no effort required to rework existing serial protocols. Take what you have on a cable, and drop our modem into the middle - it just works".
RBR Ltd. (www.rbr-global.com) is a private company based in Ottawa, Canada, with 35 years of experience delivering superior submersible data loggers, recorders, sondes, controllers and sensors for unparalleled measurement of water quality. Oceanographic instruments of the finest caliber are designed and manufactured in Ottawa, for use around the world. RBR Ltd. offers sensors for precise measurement of temperature, depth, and conductivity as well as a multitude of specialized sensors for oceanographic, freshwater, cryospheric, estuarine and coastal monitoring.
McLane Research Laboratories, Inc. (www.mclanelabs.com) was founded in 1983 with the goal of providing advanced time-series samplers and engineering design services to the international oceanographic community. Operating in East Falmouth, Massachusetts, McLane enables worldwide investigators to achieve their research and scientific goals by providing advanced, cost-effective instrumentation.
Oceans Observatories Initiative (OOI) (http://www.oceanobservatories.org/|) is a project funded by the National Science Foundation to provide long-term sustained ocean measurements for the study of climate variability, ocean circulation and ecosystem dynamics, air-sea exchange, seafloor processes, and plate-scale geodynamics. With the goal of increasing understanding of their effects on biodiversity, ocean and coastal ecosystems, ecosystem health and climate change, OOI puts invaluable data in the hands of a vast user community of oceanographers, scientists and researchers, educators and the public.
