Telesonar underwater acoustic modem technology has attained a levelof maturity sufficient to support undersea wireless communication networks, asdramatically demonstrated during Fleet Battle Experiment India (FBE-I) in June2001. Telesonar network development is following a concept of operations calledseaweb. The seaweb blueprint is tailored for battery-limited network nodescomposing wide-area (order 100-10,000 km2) sensor grids. Seaweb alreadyenables the development of littoral surveillance systems such as the DeployableAutonomous Distributed System (DADS) and continental-shelf observatoriessuch as the Front-Resolving Oceanographic Network with Telemetry (FRONT).Seaweb networking provides acoustic ranging, localization, and navigationfunctionality, and supports the participation of mobile nodes as members of thewide-area network. These mobile platforms include manned submarines andunmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs) that crawl, swim, glide, and drift. Seawebsupports expeditionary operations in contested waters, with communicationgateways to manned command centers submerged, afloat, aloft, ashore, and afar.The seaweb wireless infrastructure naturally extends into mined areas, providingcross-platform, cross-mission interoperability with anti-submarine-warfare(ASW), intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance (ISR), and meteorologyoceanography(METOC) systems. This paper introduces seaweb to the minecountermeasures(MCM) community, and addresses the communication andnavigation issues associated with autonomous sensors and UUVs.
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