Transmitting information on tides, salinity, and seismic waves measured by sensors to the ground
2020 Plan to Apply Underwater Communication Network Design Technology to Testbed

SK Telecom announced that it has secured core design technology for an underwater communication network that enables seamless communication even underwater, a first in Korea.

Once an underwater communication network is established, information measured by sensors, such as ocean currents, salinity, and seismic waves, can be transmitted to the surface in real time. This enables its application in a wide range of fields, including responding to disasters such as tsunamis and underwater earthquakes, protecting the marine environment through monitoring fish resources and marine ecosystems, and establishing underwater and port defense systems.

SK Telecom has secured a Korean-style underwater communication network model suitable for Korea's coastline and seabed topography information, and succeeded in developing network design technology to integrate the underwater network with existing maritime and terrestrial networks.

An underwater communication network is largely composed of underwater sensors, underwater base stations, and surface communication buoys. Information collected by sensors is transmitted to surface communication buoys via base stations, and this data is then sent to the surface via communication networks such as satellite or LTE. Data is transmitted using sound waves in water and radio waves in air.

SK Telecom has been participating in the 'Development of Distributed Underwater Observation/Control Network' project since 2015 in collaboration with Hoseo University (lead institution, research director Professor Koh Hak-rim), the Ship & Ocean Research Institute affiliated with the Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology, the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Kyungpook National University, Inha University, and Chung-Ang University to secure underwater network design technology.

SK Telecom and its joint research team plan to apply the underwater communication network design technology developed this time to the underwater network demonstration experiment to be conducted in the West Sea in the second half of this year and to the testbed to be built in 2020, in cooperation with South Chungcheong Province.