Power Line Communication for Long-Distance Underwater Applications

Any remotely operated underwater vehicle, or ROV for short, is attached to the surface vessel with a cable called tether. The tether provides a physical connection, power and communication to the ROV. Historically, the tethers were complicated multi-wire cables with separate members for the required functionality. Even recent commercial vehicles use multi-wire arrangements to control thrusters and lights and provide communication channels for telemetry and video feed. This approach makes the tether expensive, heavy and unsuitable for long-distance underwater operations. This paper presents a novel approach using power line communication (PLC) over a tether. Instead of a multi-wire cable, a single twisted pair is used to provide power and communication. Considering the ROV requirement for power, communication throughput and latency, a tether is designed and manufactured. Tests were performed and proved the design’s usability for long-distance ROV networking, using PLC.