Jealous Jellyfish

the way I see it is the same design as Wireless Broadband networking. You have a core running a high datarate and the from each attached node, you have a group of base-stations providing coverage for the local area. Even with this tech. there are still "dead" spots and limitations.

normally you'd run your core with a solid connections, say fiber 100mb/s per node, and then 56mb/s per base-station and each repeater off each base-station, and then each endpoint connection at say 1mb/s upto 11mb/s (depending on the use). this is possible and currently in use. you may think 1mb/s is low, but when you have that running at @ 11ms ping and a lat of 45 it's a lot better than an DSL2+ connection, we run over the 1mb/s end-point connections IP-phones, data and video with next to no lose of quality, while a 20mb/s DSL connection can still have packet drops and time-outs if there are others connection to the same D-SLAM.

We know that EnTrOx has trans-ocean datalines running all over the place (we've all played the missions where you have to protect one of the comm's stations). and they have these comm's stations to provide local connections.

if you want to get real-world on comm's, remember the US has satelite to sub comm's that can penerate 100m plus of sea. there is also the green-laser direct communation system.


key thing to remember is they wouldn't be using normal anolog connections, it'd be digital with a very high compression. which means you can have large amounts of data going over the same lines as what 10 anolog connections would use, and that data would include voice/video/data. and it'd be better than our current tech.

balthasar hat geschrieben:What about the seafloor? Wouldn't it be possible to receive them anywhere as long as we ware on the seafloor?

The vast part of the seafloor away from continental shores (AKA the Abyssal Plain) is a featureless and flat mud plain. I doubt that would be a good echo surface for long-range sonic signals. Furthermore, the average depths can range anywhere between 3000 to 6000 metres below sea level, and that's far below the depth that ELF radio can penetrate to.

DragoFire hat geschrieben:We know that EnTrOx has trans-ocean datalines running all over the place (we've all played the missions where you have to protect one of the comm's stations). And they have these comm stations to provide local connections.

Those are most likely like modern undersea fibre optic lines due to the high bandwidth they can support. I'm still surprised that EnTroPol doesn't guard them more vigilantly or respond to attacks on them more frequently because they are a global resource vital to the survival of humanity in Aqua. If any bunch of pirates or doped-up Neopolis Terror Tourists can endanger or destroy a communication node (which can happen in several missions in both AQ1 and AQ2), then they really ought to be buried deeper and/or guarded better.

DragoFire hat geschrieben:If you want to get real-world on comm's, remember the US has satellites to sub comm's that can penetrate 100m plus of seawater. There is also the green-laser direct communication system.

I very much doubt that satellites, which have an extreme limit on their weight and size totals due to the expense of our current spaceflight technology, could pack the needed powerplant and antennas required for a VLF or ELF transmitter. You might be thinking of communication buoys used by submarines which are floated to the surface (while the submarine stays at depth) so they can receive conventional radio communication. A blue-green laser could be much more portable than ELF transmitters, but you still have the targetting problems I mentioned in an earlier post. I'm not sure just how far a blue-green communications laser could penetrate underwater--natural sunlight more or less peters out entirely beyond 200 meters below sea level (where weak blue light is all that's left), and I'm not sure how a laser could do much better.

ELF

ELF frequency range (3–300 Hz) (see also SLF) can penetrate seawater to depths of hundreds of meters, allowing communication with submarines at their operating depths. Building an ELF transmitter is a formidable challenge, as they have to work at incredibly long wavelengths: The US Navy's system (called Seafarer) operated at 76 hertz,[1] the Soviet/Russian system (called ZEVS) at 82 hertz.[2] The latter corresponds to a wavelength of 3,658.5 kilometers. That is more than a quarter of the Earth's diameter. Obviously, the usual half-wavelength dipole antenna cannot be constructed, as it would spread across a large country.

Which does use a bouy system to relay between above water communication Satelites, boats, etc... This bouy is not attached to the submarine, earlier designs did. They call it the Deep Siren project.

Blue Laser for Submarine Laser Communications (SLC)

The objective of the Blue Laser for Submarine Laser Communications (SLC) program is to develop and demonstrate duplex SLC that meets a spectrum of bandwidth requirements, to include low bandwidth missions (e.g., anti-submarine warfare) to high bandwidth missions (e.g., Special Operations Forces support or intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions). Submarine speed and depths during the demonstration are expected to be unrestricted. The demonstration results will be used to highlight the increased capabilities of the submarine force to support Navy, joint and coalition operations, and to validate system performance estimates. Program success will transform the submarine from an intermittent node (periscope depth) to a persistent cooperative node (networked at speed & depth).

This has been test at 3mb/s upto 24km point to point underwater. This is reduced to @ 100m +10m when sending signal from submarine to above surface points.

I think this above point is something everyone has been missing...most information is talking about communication to/from submarines to above surface points, very few talk about point to point underwater. This changes how things act, as the signal isn't changing from medium to another to get to where it needs to go. Remember Whales and Dolphins use sonic pulse to communicate 100's ok km.

I believe if you look at it that way the ranges of ELF, SLC and other tech in development could get the ranges wanted, sure there will be limitations due to enviromental affects the same as Wireless communication over land.

Just something to think about!