I-Corps: Reliable and Low-Cost Transceiver for Underwater Wireless Communications and Networks

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是在水下无线通信和无线传感器网络。 创新的水下无线通信技术是非常需要的，以实现实时无线传感和数据通信。成本的降低和可靠性的提高将使水下无线通信系统得到广泛应用，并将大大提高海洋大数据采集和水下基础设施监测的能力。这个I-Corps项目的商业潜力是成功地将技术转移到现场产品，从而对海洋仪器，近海环境观测，基础设施（桥梁、油管、河岸、堤坝）监测、海底石油钻探、渔业、潜水员通信、水下采矿作业、以及用鱼雷、水下机器人进行海岸监视、I-Corps项目旨在制定一项商业计划，将创新的水下无线通信技术转化为现场产品。恶劣的海洋/河流/湖泊环境对水下无线通信提出了巨大的挑战。目前，可用的声波收发器主要是20世纪90年代开发的第二代技术，其遭受成本高或对变化的环境的鲁棒性低。单载波调制水声通信中的Turbo均衡算法具有高可靠性、高性能、低硬件成本等优点，被公认为第三代水声无线通信技术。 这个I-Corps项目将专注于三个主要任务：1）确定价值主张，2）通过发现客户细分，收入渠道和客户关系来分析收入流，3）通过研究关键活动，关键资源和关键合作伙伴来分析成本结构。该项目的目标是帮助将这种水下无线技术转化为具有低成本和高可靠性的现场产品。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is in underwater wireless communications and wireless sensor networks. The innovative underwater wireless communication technology is highly desirable for enabling real-time wireless sensing and data communication. The reduced cost and improved reliability will enable wide-spread applications of underwater wireless communication system and will greatly enhance the capability of ocean big data acquisition and underwater infrastructure monitoring. The commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the successful technology transfer to field products, which in turn can make huge impact on ocean instrumentation, offshore environmental observation, infrastructure (bridge, oil pipe, river bank, levee) monitoring, subsea oil drilling, fishing industry, diver communications, underwater mine operation, and coastal surveillance with torpedoes, underwater robots, and unmanned underwater vehicles.This I-Corps project aims at developing a business plan for transferring the innovative underwater wireless communication technology into field products. The hostile ocean/river/lake environment imposes tremendous challenges for underwater wireless communications. Currently, the available acoustic transceivers are mainly second-generation technologies developed in 1990s, which suffer from either high cost or low robustness against changing environment. The innovative Turbo equalization algorithms for single-carrier modulation acoustic communications exhibit high reliability, high performance, and low hardware cost, and have been recognized as the third generation technology in underwater wireless communications. This I-Corps project will focus on three major tasks: 1) identify the value proposition, 2) analyze the revenue streams by discovering customer segments, revenue channels, and customer relationships, and 3) analyzing cost structure by studying key activities, key resources, and key partners. The goal of this project is to help transferring this underwater wireless technology into field products that exhibit low cost and high reliability.