TECHNOLOGY to enable highspeed data transfer underwater holds great promise for subsea installations, but bringing reliable wi-fi to the deep presents considerable challenges.BP and other offshore oil and gas players have been working to overcome the technical hurdles related to the emerging technology of subsea wireless communications.The chief obstacle is the water column itself and the way light and sound move through it, according to Ken Nguyen, BP's principal portfolio manager for the Mad Dog Phase 2 project."You can use acoustic, radio or laser, but each has their own challenge," he says. "Acoustic is [what] we use today, but it is slow, and the latency, or time it takes to send a signal from one place to another, is high."
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