SKT Protects South Korea's Seas with Underwater Communication Network Technology

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Cho] SK Telecom announced on the 26th that it has conducted a pilot study in collaboration with Hoseo University and the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute to connect marine pollution detection sensors to an underwater base station-based communication network, enabling real-time monitoring of underwater pollution. This study, which monitors underwater conditions in real time, is expected to be a significant milestone in protecting the maritime safety of the Republic of Korea.

This is the world's first time that an underwater base station has been used to detect various potential issues in the ocean in real time. SK Telecom views this as an important opportunity to overcome the current difficulties in detecting seawater pollution. Currently, to check pollution in the coastal waters of Korea, national agencies must collect seawater samples from the area and analyze them in a laboratory, making it difficult to quickly confirm seawater pollution.

The study was conducted from the 23rd to the 27th by installing and testing related equipment at a site approximately 4 km in front of Gwangandaegyo Bridge in Suyeong-gu, Busan Metropolitan City, at a depth of about 30 meters. The underwater base station installed near Gwangandaegyo Bridge and the underwater sensor nodes equipped with marine pollution detection sensors measure marine pollution every 10 minutes and transmit the data via acoustic communication from the sensors to the underwater base station and then to the marine buoy. The marine buoy is equipped with an underwater communication modem and a ‘multi-land communication network switching system’ developed for communication at sea, which selects the optimal communication network and transmits the measured data to the ‘underwater data management platform’ on land.

In addition to simply transmitting measurement data, the management platform monitors various information such as the location and configuration of underwater sensors, underwater base stations, base station controllers, the communication status of the underwater base station controllers, nearby marine LTE coverage, water temperature, and salinity. SK Telecom’s network design optimization solution is also integrated.

This study is jointly conducted since 2015 under the leadership of Hoseo University to secure core technologies for underwater communication networks based on underwater base stations, with SK Telecom, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Kyungpook National University, Chung-Ang University, Inha University, Sangmyung University, Hanyang University, and Kookmin University participating.

It is expected to become a core infrastructure of the Republic of Korea’s Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) era by overcoming the limitations of underwater acoustic communication, which frequently experiences communication interruptions, and enabling real-time collection and analysis of observation information underwater just like on land.

Furthermore, it is anticipated to be utilized in a wide range of areas including ▲early warning of marine pollution and various marine disasters and environmental monitoring ▲communication between underwater robots ▲marine plant management ▲disaster response such as tsunamis and underwater earthquakes ▲monitoring of fishery resources and marine ecosystems ▲and establishment of underwater port defense systems. With the International Organization for Standardization adopting the marine and underwater IoT field as an international standardization task, there is hope that the technologies applied in this study will become international standard technologies by 2022.

Professor Hakrim Ko of Hoseo University said, “The underwater communication technology based on underwater base stations, introduced for the first time in the world, will contribute to Korea leading the market related to underwater communication technology,” adding, “This test is a good example of underwater IoT services, and underwater communication network technology will become a core infrastructure of Korea.”

Yun Hyung-sik, Head of SK Telecom’s Infrastructure Operations Group, said, “We are pleased to contribute to safely protecting Korea’s seas with SKT’s advanced communication technology,” and added, “Starting with this achievement made possible by the collaboration of government, industry, and academia, we will lead the era of the Internet of Underwater Things and take the lead in ESG management by solving social problems using ICT.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.