KR102484529B1 - Communication medium selection method based on ontology for internet of underwater things and underwater communication device performing the method - Google Patents

Abstract

An underwater communication device for selecting a communication medium based on an ontology of the underwater Internet of Things according to an aspect of the technical idea of the present disclosure includes a transceiver including a plurality of communication media and at least one parameter based on the ontology of the IoUT. A memory including a local knowledge base for storing, and a control unit obtaining qualified medium information based on the at least one parameter and attempting to transmit the data using a first communication medium included in the obtained qualified medium information do.

Description

Ontology-based communication medium selection method of the underwater Internet of Things and underwater communication device performing the same

The technical idea of the present disclosure relates to an ontology-based communication medium selection method of the underwater Internet of Things and an underwater communication device performing the same.

Communication in an underwater environment can be used in various fields such as marine data collection, undersea exploration, disaster prevention, marine environment monitoring, military tactical detection, and route search. Such underwater communication is being further activated by devices such as an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) and a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV).

However, since the underwater environment is highly variable and difficult to predict, there is a problem in that wireless communication in the water follows many limitations in reliability compared to wireless communication on the ground. Therefore, wireless communication in the water may require a technique for selecting an appropriate communication method according to the underwater environment. Communication methods used in underwater wireless communication include visible light communication, sound wave communication, infrared communication, low frequency communication, magnetic field communication, and the like, and each communication method may have advantages and disadvantages for each state of the underwater environment.

In order to select an appropriate communication method according to changes in the underwater environment, it may be necessary to define the relationship or connection between various information and data. In particular, in relation to the underwater Internet of Things, which provides various services through connection and data sharing between various devices existing in the water, it enables smooth communication between devices by establishing an ontology-based framework optimized for the underwater environment. However, it may be necessary to define how to process and utilize data obtained through communication.

Republic of Korea Patent Publication No. 10-2009-0010513 (published on January 30, 2009)

One problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide an ontology for wireless communication in an underwater environment such as the underwater Internet of Things, and to provide a method for selecting an appropriate communication medium for smooth communication of an underwater communication device based on the provided ontology. is to do

In order to achieve the above object, an underwater communication device for selecting a communication medium based on the ontology of the underwater Internet of Things according to an aspect according to the technical idea of the present disclosure includes a transceiver including a plurality of communication media , a memory including a local knowledge base for storing at least one parameter based on the ontology of the IoUT, and obtaining qualified medium information based on the at least one parameter, and using a first communication medium included in the obtained qualified medium information. and a control unit attempting to transmit the data by using

According to an embodiment, the controller determines the eligible medium information including at least some communication media among a plurality of communication media included in the transceiver based on a medium selection rule in which a condition for the at least one parameter is defined. can be obtained.

According to an embodiment, the at least one parameter may include at least one of a distance between a device to receive the data and the underwater communication device, the amount of data, a battery level of the underwater communication device, and underwater environment data. can

According to an embodiment, the underwater communication device further includes at least one sensor, and the control unit periodically or continuously obtains some of the at least one parameter from the at least one sensor, and transmits some of the acquired parameters. The local knowledge base can be updated using

According to an embodiment, the control unit obtains information on a packet error rate (PER) or bit error rate (BER) of each communication medium included in the qualified medium information, and among the communication media included in the qualified medium information Transmission of the data may be attempted using the first communication medium having the lowest PER or BER.

According to an embodiment, when the transmission of the data using the first communication medium succeeds, the control unit selects the first communication medium to perform underwater wireless communication, and transmits the data using the first communication medium. If this fails, transmission of the data may be attempted using a second communication medium having a lower PER or BER than the first communication medium among communication media included in the qualified medium information.

According to an embodiment, the control unit may update the medium selection rule when transmission of the data using all communication media included in the eligible medium information fails.

According to an embodiment, the ontology of the IoUT includes a plurality of classes and information about a relationship between the plurality of classes, and the plurality of classes include a class related to the location of the underwater communication device and a class of the underwater communication device. A class related to data obtained through a sensor and a class related to a communication medium of the underwater communication device may be included, and the local knowledge base may store data obtained based on each of the plurality of classes.

According to an embodiment, the plurality of communication media may include two or more of a sound wave transducer, a visible light transceiver, an infrared transceiver, a low frequency antenna, and a magnetic field transceiver.

A method for selecting a communication medium of an underwater communication device based on an ontology of the Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) according to an aspect of the technical idea of the present disclosure, in response to providing data to be transmitted, obtains qualified medium information based on at least one parameter doing; attempting to transmit the data using a first communication medium included in the obtained qualified medium information; performing underwater wireless communication by selecting the first communication medium when the transmission of the data is successful; and attempting to transmit the data using a second communication medium included in the qualified medium information when the transmission of the data fails, wherein at least some of the at least one parameter is based on the IoUT ontology. It may be obtained from a local knowledge base of the underwater communication device.

According to the technical idea of the present disclosure, an ontology of the underwater Internet of Things that is different from the existing Internet of Things is provided, and an optimal communication medium can be selected using the ontology of the underwater Internet of Things and various data related to the underwater environment. Therefore, communication stability in the underwater Internet of Things environment can be maximized.

Effects according to the technical idea of the present disclosure are not limited to the effects mentioned above, and other effects not mentioned can be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the description below. There will be.

A brief description of each figure is provided in order to more fully understand the figures cited in this disclosure.
1 is a conceptual diagram of an underwater communication system to which an embodiment of the present disclosure is applied.
2 shows an embodiment of logical layers of the framework of the underwater Internet of Things included in the underwater communication system of the present disclosure.
3 is a diagram illustrating components included in a framework of the underwater Internet of Things according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIG. 4 is an exemplary diagram illustrating ontologies included in the semantic knowledge base shown in FIG. 3 .
5 shows the overall ontology configuration of the underwater Internet of Things according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of the underwater Internet of Things device ontology shown in FIG. 4 .
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of the underwater context ontology shown in FIG. 4 .
FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of the channel selection ontology shown in FIG. 4 .
9 is a flowchart illustrating a method of selecting a communication medium based on an ontology of an underwater Internet of Things according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
10 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary configuration of an underwater communication device that performs the method of FIG. 9 .
11 is an exemplary diagram showing an aspect in which underwater communication devices are connected based on the method of FIG. 9 .

Exemplary embodiments according to the technical spirit of the present disclosure are provided to more completely explain the technical spirit of the present disclosure to those skilled in the art, and the following embodiments are modified in various forms. It may be, and the scope of the technical spirit of the present disclosure is not limited to the following embodiments. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the spirit of the invention to those skilled in the art.

Although terms such as first and second are used in this disclosure to describe various members, regions, layers, regions and/or components, these members, parts, regions, layers, regions and/or components do not refer to these terms. It is self-evident that it should not be limited by These terms do not imply any particular order, top or bottom, or superiority or inferiority, and are used only to distinguish one member, region, region, or component from another member, region, region, or component. Accordingly, a first member, region, region, or component to be described in detail below may refer to a second member, region, region, or component without departing from the teachings of the technical concept of the present disclosure. For example, a first element may be termed a second element, and similarly, the second element may be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

Unless defined otherwise, all terms used herein, including technical terms and scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by those of ordinary skill in the art to which the concepts of the present disclosure belong. In addition, commonly used terms as defined in the dictionary should be interpreted as having a meaning consistent with what they mean in the context of the technology to which they relate, and in an overly formal sense unless explicitly defined herein. will not be interpreted.

When an embodiment can be implemented differently, the order of specific processes may be performed differently from the order described. For example, two processes described in succession may be performed substantially simultaneously, or may be performed in an order reverse to the order described.

The term 'and/or' as used herein includes each and every combination of one or more of the recited elements.

Hereinafter, embodiments according to the technical idea of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a conceptual diagram of an underwater communication system to which an embodiment of the present disclosure is applied.

Referring to FIG. 1, the underwater communication system includes a ground management center (or server) 1, a plurality of underwater communication devices (or nodes) 11a, 11b, 12a, 12b, 13, 14a, 14b; Hereinafter collectively referred to as '10'), and surface gateways 20a and 20b existing between the management center 1 and the underwater communication device.

The management center 1 may be connected to the gateways 20a and 20b and the underwater communication devices 10 through a ground base station antenna or a satellite 2 . The management center 1 may perform overall operations related to management of data, resources, and devices 10, 20a, and 20b of the underwater communication system. For example, the management center 1 may store various data provided from the underwater communication devices 10 or may process the various data to provide information for use in various fields. In addition, the management center 1 is provided between the devices 10, 20a, 20b included in the underwater communication system and the external network, enabling connection between the devices 10, 20a, 20b and the external network. can For example, the management center 1 may be implemented as a server, but is not limited thereto.

Gateways 20a, 20b are connected between the management center 1 and the underwater communication devices, enabling data exchange between the management center 1 and the underwater communication devices 10. To this end, the gateways 20a and 20b may support a wireless communication method (e.g., a mobile communication method such as LTE and 5G, a satellite communication method, etc.) for wireless communication with the management center 1, and the underwater communication devices 10 ) for underwater wireless communication (eg, sound wave communication, visual light communication (VLC), infrared communication, low frequency communication, magnetic field communication, etc.) may be supported.

The underwater communication devices 10 include various devices that exist or are used underwater, and each of the devices may support a wireless communication method for underwater wireless communication. For example, the underwater communication devices 10 include a plurality of sensor nodes 11a and 11b that sense data for measuring and monitoring the underwater environment, underwater vehicles 12a and 12b, and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) 13. , and/or underwater communication devices 14a, 14b mounted on the diver's equipment or carried by the diver.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the underwater communication devices 10 may form a network by being connected to each other using the wireless communication method. That is, an underwater Internet of Things (IoUT) configured by connecting the underwater communication devices 10 to each other may be implemented in the underwater communication system.

The underwater communication devices 10 may transmit various data obtained in relation to the operation of the device, such as data related to the underwater environment, to the management center 1 through the gateways 20a and 20b. Depending on the embodiment, the underwater communication devices 10 may provide navigation-related information of the ships 30a and 30b by providing data related to the underwater environment to the ships 30a and 30b existing on the surface.

On the other hand, the underwater environment in which the underwater communication devices 10 exist may have inferior communication conditions and a greater degree of environmental change than the terrestrial environment. In addition, power supply and performance of the underwater communication devices 10 may be limited. Accordingly, in order to establish a seamless communication connection between the underwater communication devices 10, it is important to monitor the underwater environment or the state of the device, select the optimal communication method according to the monitoring result, and perform communication. can

In addition, in the case of the underwater communication devices 10, there is a limit in power supply or load, and since the types and number of devices constituting the underwater Internet of Things are smaller than those on the ground, in order to efficiently operate the devices constituting the underwater Internet of Things , the definition of a lightweight IoUT ontology framework suitable for the Internet of Things Underwater (IoUT) and underwater communication devices 10 may be required.

2 shows an embodiment of logical layers of the framework of the underwater Internet of Things included in the underwater communication system of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 2, the application domain of the Underwater Internet of Things (IoUT) covers various fields such as earthquake monitoring, water pollution monitoring, disaster prevention (tsunami, red tide, etc.), tracking of marine life, military use, and monitoring of underwater pipelines. can include The framework of the underwater Internet of Things can be designed to accommodate various scenarios according to these application domains.

The framework of the underwater Internet of Things according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes a data acquisition layer, a semantic data layer, a decision making layer, and a service abstraction layer. It may consist of four different collaboration layers, but is not limited thereto.

The data collection layer may consist of an underwater communication device having sensors that acquire data related to the underwater environment. In addition to the data obtained through the sensors, data related to the state of the underwater communication device and data related to the communication medium may also be acquired in the data collection layer. In addition, the data collection layer may have various communication mechanisms required for exchanging data.

The semantic data layer may include a semantic knowledge base corresponding to the data model of the framework. For example, the data model may correspond to web ontology languages (OWL) and a set of ontologies representing device status, communication medium status, and context information. According to an embodiment, data extracted from the data collection layer may be converted into a form suitable for the semantic knowledge base (eg, resource description framework (RDF) data, etc.).

The decision layer may have an inference engine and inference rules for decision making, and may infer new knowledge related to the application domain based on data existing in the knowledge base. The service abstraction layer can be identified as a cloud platform that enables the extension of the framework, and can provide common service functions to devices (nodes) constituting the underwater Internet of Things.

3 is a diagram illustrating architecture components of a framework for underwater Internet of Things according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 3 , the architecture component 300 of the framework may be composed of a combination of software libraries and hardware related to implementation, maintenance, and management of the underwater Internet of Things, such as network connection, data storage, and semantic web management.

For example, at the lowest layer there may be underlying hardware coupled with an operating system component 310 that provides abstraction functions for allocating or de-allocating hardware resources. The hardware resource may correspond to a storage for persistence of data, a sensor for acquiring data from an underwater environment, or components for performing a unique operation of each underwater communication device 100. The utilization component 320 may ensure continuous utilization of semantic data and keep the data in storage such as main memory. Messaging and connectivity component 330 may provide mechanisms for handling communication media used in the underwater Internet of Things, and may provide functionality for protocols for communication (TCP, UDP, etc.).

The resource and semantic function component 340 may correspond to a component related to a communication medium selection method of the underwater Internet of Things according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the resource and semantic function component 340 may provide a mechanism and library for inferring a communication medium suitable for underwater wireless communication based on data sensed in relation to the underwater environment or communication environment and previously acquired data. there is. For example, the resource and semantic function component 340 includes a SPARQL endpoint 341, an inference engine 342, a dynamic rules engine 343, an RDF parser/serializer 344, a resource interface 345, and a semantic knowledge base 350. ) may include at least one of

A protocol (eg, a SPARQL protocol, etc.) for accessing RDF structured data of the semantic knowledge base 350 may be implemented in the SPARQL endpoint 341 . The inference engine 342 may infer new knowledge from the semantic knowledge base 350 and apply inference rules to the existing knowledge. The dynamic rule engine 343 is involved in updating the selection rules of the communication medium, and the RDF parser/serializer 344 converts text extracted from an external format into RDF form for the semantic knowledge base 350, or RDF form Data can be converted to an external format. The resource interface 345 may provide data of the semantic knowledge base 350 to an external software component or may integrate semantic data collected from other sources.

The semantic knowledge base 350 may include an ontology related to the execution of the communication medium selection method of the underwater Internet of Things according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Ontology refers to a method of conceptualizing information within a specific range, classifying or defining concepts in a logical structure, and expressing them in a hierarchical structure. The ontology included in the semantic knowledge base 350 may be constructed using Resource Description Framework Schema (RDFS), Resource Description Framework (RDF), and Ontology Web Language (OWL), but is not limited thereto.

An underwater communication device constituting the underwater Internet of Things, which will be described later, can perform an operation for selecting an optimal communication medium according to data and parameters existing in a local knowledge base based on an ontology included in the semantic knowledge base 350. there is. The ontology of the underwater Internet of Things designed according to the ontologies included in the semantic knowledge base 350 and the combination of the ontologies will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 4 to 8 below.

FIG. 4 is an exemplary diagram illustrating ontologies included in the semantic knowledge base shown in FIG. 3 . 5 shows the overall ontology configuration of the underwater Internet of Things according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of the underwater Internet of Things device ontology shown in FIG. 4 . FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of the underwater context ontology shown in FIG. 4 . FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of the channel selection ontology shown in FIG. 4 .

Referring to FIG. 4 , the semantic knowledge base 350 may include an underwater IoT device ontology 352 , an underwater context ontology 354 , and a channel (medium) selection ontology 356 .

The underwater Internet of Things device ontology 352 may be used to model devices used in the underwater Internet of Things and their characteristics. The underwater context ontology 354 may be intended to provide a means by which the system may be aware of the context in which it is operating. The channel (medium) selection ontology 356 may be used for modeling channels (communication media) for underwater wireless communication.

5 shows an example of the configuration of the ontology of the underwater Internet of Things. The ontology of the underwater Internet of Things may correspond to an ontology modeled so that an underwater communication device selects an appropriate channel (communication medium) according to an underwater environment. The ontology of the underwater Internet of Things may be constructed as a combination of the underwater Internet of Things device ontology 352, the underwater context ontology 354, and the channel selection ontology 356, but is not limited thereto. For example, the ontology of the underwater Internet of Things may include a plurality of modules 510 to 570, and may be constructed to establish a plurality of classes included in each of the modules 510 to 570 and a relationship between the classes. .

Referring to FIG. 6 together, the underwater IoT device ontology 600 can be constructed to form a hierarchical structure by creating classes for concepts related to device characteristics of underwater communication devices and setting relationships between classes. The underwater IoT device ontology 600 of FIG. 6 may correspond to an example of implementation of the underwater Internet of Things device ontology 352 of FIG. 4 .

Referring to modules, some classes, and relationships related to the underwater Internet of Things device ontology 600 of FIG. 6 , the underwater Internet of Things device ontology 600 may include a device module 540 . The highest class of the device module 540 is designated as a device, and the moving class (Moving) and the fixed class (Fixed) related to the motion characteristics of the device may have a relationship of “hasdevicemoment” with the device class (Device). . On the other hand, the function class (Function) has a relationship of "hasfunctionality" with the device class (Device), and examples of specific functions such as sensing class (Sensing functionality), tag class (tag functionality), and actuator class (actuating) are functional classes ( It may correspond to a subclass of Function).

Referring to FIGS. 5 and 7 , the underwater context ontology 700 may be constructed to form a hierarchical structure by creating classes for concepts related to recognizing a situation in which the system is operating and establishing a relationship between the classes. The underwater context ontology 700 of FIG. 7 may correspond to an implementation example of the underwater context ontology 354 described above with reference to FIG. 4 .

Describing the modules, some classes, and relationships of the underwater context ontology 700 of FIG. 7 , the underwater context ontology 700 includes a system module 510, a location module 520, a sensor module 530, and an activity module. (570). The system class (System) and the location class (Location) can have a relationship of "isLocatedin". A surface class (Surface), a thin class (Shallow), and a deep class (Deep) representing specific examples of locations may correspond to subclasses of the location class (Location).

5 and 8, the channel selection ontology 800 generates classes for concepts related to transmitting data (packets) using channels (communication media) for underwater wireless communication, and between classes. Relationships can be established to form hierarchical structures. The channel selection ontology 800 of FIG. 8 may correspond to an implementation example of the underwater context ontology 354 described above with reference to FIG. 4 .

Describing the modules, some classes, and relationships of the channel selection ontology 800 of FIG. 8, the channel selection ontology 800 includes a system module 510, a location module 520, a transmission module 550, and a channel module. (560). A transmission class (Transmission) of the transmission module 550 and a channel type class (Channel type) of the channel module 560 may have a relationship of “Uses”. Visible light communication class (VLC), infrared / magnetic field communication class (IR/magnetic), low frequency communication class (RF), and acoustic communication class (Acoustic), which represent examples of specific channels, are subclasses of the channel type class (Channel type). may apply.

Based on the semantic knowledge base 350 in which the ontology of the underwater IoT according to the embodiments of FIGS. 5 to 8 is implemented, the underwater communication device (or node) constituting the underwater IoT is a communication medium for smooth underwater wireless communication. can choose The communication medium may correspond to the aforementioned channel. Referring to FIGS. 9 to 11, a method for selecting a communication medium of an underwater communication device based on the ontology of the underwater Internet of Things will be described in detail.

9 is a flowchart illustrating a method of selecting a communication medium based on an ontology of an underwater Internet of Things according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 9 , a node (underwater communication device) constituting the underwater Internet of Things uses a plurality of communication media based on the ontology of the underwater Internet of Things of the semantic knowledge base 350 and various information or data acquired through sensors. Underwater wireless communication can be performed by selecting any one of the communication media.

More specifically, the node may obtain qualified medium information based on the parameters of the node in response to providing data to be transmitted to another node (S900).

The parameter may include the distance between the node and the other node, the amount of data, the battery level of the node, and/or various aquatic environment data (turbidity, temperature, pH concentration, flow rate, salinity, etc.) obtained from a sensor. there is. Some of the parameters may be periodically or continuously updated in the node's local knowledge base, and the node may obtain the some parameters by referring to the local knowledge base. The local knowledge base may include various types of information, data, and parameters based on the ontology of the semantic knowledge base 350 described above with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4 .

The node may obtain qualified medium information including at least one communication medium that satisfies a requirement according to the parameter among a plurality of communication mediums. The node may call the inference engine 342 described above in FIG. 3 and obtain the qualified medium information according to a medium selection rule. For example, the medium selection rule may define conditions required for considering a medium suitable for data transmission. The conditions may correspond to at least one of the parameters.

The node may select a communication medium having a minimum packet error rate (PER) from among at least one communication medium included in the qualified medium information (S920), and may attempt to transmit data using the selected communication medium.

For example, the node may calculate the PER (or bit error rate (BER), etc.) of each of the at least one communication medium, and select the communication medium having the lowest PER according to the calculation result. According to an embodiment, the PER of each of the at least one communication medium is continuously or periodically updated in a local knowledge base of the node, and the node obtains information on the PER of each of the at least one communication medium from the local knowledge base. You may.

If data transmission is successful (YES in S930), the node may perform communication with another node using the currently selected communication medium and wait for new transmission data (S940).

On the other hand, if data transmission fails (NO in S930), the node may exclude the selected communication medium and select another communication medium included in the qualified medium information (S950).

For example, the node may attempt to transmit data while sequentially selecting communication media in descending order of PER.

If data transmission using the selected communication medium is successful (YES in S960), the node may wait for new transmission data while maintaining the selected communication medium (S940).

On the other hand, if data transmission using the selected communication medium fails (NO in S960), the node may retry data transmission by selecting the corresponding communication medium when there is another communication medium included in the qualified medium information ( YES for S970). However, if another communication medium included in the qualified medium information no longer exists (NO in S970), the node updates the medium selection rule (S980), thereby obtaining other qualified medium information under the same conditions later. let it be

10 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary configuration of an underwater communication device that performs the method of FIG. 9 .

Referring to FIG. 10 , an underwater communication device may correspond to any one of devices (nodes) constituting the underwater Internet of Things. Such an underwater communication device may include a transmission/reception unit 110, an underwater complex sensor unit 120, a control unit 130, and a memory 140. Configurations of the underwater communication device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure are not limited to the example of FIG. 10, and the underwater communication device may include more or less configurations.

The transceiver 110 is a component that transmits and receives packets and signals through various underwater wireless communication media, and preferably includes a sound wave transducer, a visible light transceiver, an infrared transceiver, a low frequency antenna, and a magnetic field transceiver. Of course, this configuration is only an example and can be applied to any transmission/reception module of a communication medium capable of wireless communication underwater. For example, the underwater wireless communication medium includes at least one of visible light, infrared light, sound waves, magnetic fields, and extremely low frequency wireless communication media. For example, the underwater wireless communication medium may correspond to subclasses of the channel type class defined in the above-described ontology of the underwater Internet of Things. The transceiver 110 may include a multimedia ADC that converts a signal or waveform of a communication medium into digital data or performs the opposite function.

The underwater complex sensor unit 120 may include sensors corresponding to subclasses of the sensor class defined in the ontology of the underwater Internet of Things. The underwater complex sensor unit 120 is a component that collects a plurality of underwater environment data, and includes various sensors capable of detecting, for example, temperature, salinity, turbidity, flow rate, pH concentration, and the like in water. The data collected in this way can be later converted into packets or signals and stored in an internal storage device or the aforementioned local knowledge base, or transmitted to other external devices.

The control unit 130 may control the overall operation of the underwater communication device. Depending on the embodiment, the control unit 130 determines the data (parameters) provided from the transceiver 110 and/or the underwater complex sensor unit 120, or various parameters included in the local knowledge base stored in the memory 140. Based on this, it is possible to select a communication medium optimized for conditions and situations, and control data to be transmitted through the selected communication medium. Depending on the embodiment, the control unit 130 may execute or control the configurations of the architecture component 300 described above in FIG. 3 to select the communication medium. The controller 130 may include at least one processor (CPU, AP, ASIC, FPGA, etc.).

The memory 140 may store data, commands, algorithms, and the like related to the operation of the underwater communication device. According to an embodiment, the memory 140 may store data related to the architecture component 300 of FIG. 3, and local knowledge in which various parameters and data based on the ontology of the underwater IoT described above in FIGS. 4 to 8 are stored. may include a local knowledge base. The memory 140 may include at least one volatile memory and at least one non-volatile memory.

11 is an exemplary diagram showing an aspect in which underwater communication devices are connected based on the method of FIG. 9 .

In FIG. 11, an embodiment in which an underwater communication device (node) selects a communication medium based on a distance to another underwater communication device (node) to transmit data is described, but as described above in FIG. Conditions (parameters) can vary.

For example, the first node 1100 may transmit/receive data using sound wave communication with a node 1110 spaced apart from a first reference distance (eg, 10 m) or more, and may transmit/receive data using sound wave communication with a node 1120 existing within the first reference distance. Data may be transmitted and received through communication, visible light communication, and/or magnetic field communication. In addition, the second node 1130 may transmit/receive data with the node 1140 located at a second reference distance (eg, 3 m) through visible light communication and/or infrared communication.

According to the embodiments of FIGS. 9 to 11, underwater communication devices constituting the underwater Internet of Things can be implemented to select the optimal communication medium based on various information or data obtained through the ontology and sensors of the underwater Internet of Things. there is. Accordingly, smooth underwater wireless communication between underwater communication devices may be possible, and quality degradation of underwater wireless communication may be minimized through more agile response to changes in the underwater environment.

The descriptions of the above embodiments are merely examples with reference to the drawings for a more thorough understanding of the present disclosure, and should not be construed as limiting the technical spirit of the present disclosure.

In addition, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications are possible within a range that does not deviate from the basic principles of the present disclosure.

Claims (15)

In an underwater communication device that selects a communication medium based on the ontology of the Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT),
Transmitting and receiving units including a plurality of communication media;
a memory including a local knowledge base for storing at least one parameter based on the ontology of the IoUT; and
obtain qualified media information based on the at least one parameter;
A control unit attempting to transmit data using a first communication medium included in the obtained qualified medium information;
The ontology of the IoUT is composed of a combination of an underwater Internet of Things device ontology, an underwater context ontology, and a channel selection ontology,
The underwater Internet of Things device ontology is used to model devices used in the underwater Internet of Things and their characteristics,
The underwater context ontology provides a means for recognizing the context in which the system is operating,
The channel selection ontology is used for modeling channels for underwater wireless communication,
Underwater communication device. According to claim 1,
The control unit,
Obtaining the qualified medium information including at least some communication media among a plurality of communication media included in the transceiver unit based on a medium selection rule in which a condition for the at least one parameter is defined.
Underwater communication device. According to claim 1,
The at least one parameter is
Including at least one of the distance between the device to receive the data and the underwater communication device, the amount of data, the battery level of the underwater communication device, and underwater environment data,
Underwater communication device. According to claim 3,
further comprising at least one sensor;
The control unit,
obtaining periodically or continuously some of the at least one parameter from the at least one sensor;
Updating the local knowledge base using some of the acquired parameters;
Underwater communication device. According to claim 1,
The control unit,
Obtaining information on a packet error rate (PER) or bit error rate (BER) of each communication medium included in the qualified medium information;
Attempting to transmit the data using the first communication medium having the lowest PER or BER among communication media included in the eligible medium information;
Underwater communication device. According to claim 5,
The control unit,
When the transmission of the data using the first communication medium is successful, selecting the first communication medium to perform underwater wireless communication,
When transmission of the data using the first communication medium fails, transmission of the data is performed using a second communication medium having a lower PER or BER than the first communication medium among communication media included in the qualified medium information to try,
Underwater communication device. According to claim 6,
The control unit,
Updating a medium selection rule in which conditions for the at least one parameter are defined when transmission of the data using all communication media included in the eligible medium information fails.
Underwater communication device. According to claim 1,
The IoUT ontology includes information about a plurality of classes and relationships between the plurality of classes,
The plurality of classes include a class related to the location of the underwater communication device, a class related to data obtained through a sensor of the underwater communication device, and a class related to the communication medium of the underwater communication device,
The local knowledge base stores data obtained based on each of the plurality of classes.
Underwater communication device. According to claim 1,
The plurality of communication media,
Including two or more of an acoustic transducer, a visible light transceiver, an infrared transceiver, a low frequency antenna, and a magnetic field transceiver,
Underwater communication device. In the communication medium selection method of an underwater communication device based on the ontology of the underwater Internet of Things (IoUT),
in response to providing data to transmit, obtaining qualified medium information based on at least one parameter;
attempting to transmit the data using a first communication medium included in the obtained qualified medium information;
performing underwater wireless communication by selecting the first communication medium when the transmission of the data is successful; and
When transmission of the data fails, attempting to transmit the data using a second communication medium included in the qualified medium information;
At least some of the at least one parameter is obtained from a local knowledge base of the underwater communication device based on the ontology of the IoUT,
The ontology of the IoUT is composed of a combination of an underwater Internet of Things device ontology, an underwater context ontology, and a channel selection ontology,
The underwater Internet of Things device ontology is used to model devices used in the underwater Internet of Things and their characteristics,
The underwater context ontology provides a means for recognizing the context in which the system is operating,
The channel selection ontology is used for modeling channels for underwater wireless communication,
How to choose a communication medium. According to claim 10,
Obtaining the qualified media information,
Based on a medium selection rule in which a condition for the at least one parameter is defined, obtaining the qualified medium information including at least some communication media among a plurality of communication media provided by the underwater communication device. doing,
How to choose a communication medium. According to claim 10,
The at least one parameter is
Including at least one of the distance between the device to receive the data and the underwater communication device, the amount of data, the battery level of the underwater communication device, and underwater environment data,
How to choose a communication medium. According to claim 12,
The communication medium selection method,
periodically or continuously obtaining some of the at least one parameter from at least one sensor included in the underwater communication device; and
Further comprising updating the local knowledge base using some of the acquired parameters.
How to choose a communication medium. According to claim 10,
Attempting to transmit the data using the first communication medium comprises:
obtaining information on a packet error rate (PER) or bit error rate (BER) of each communication medium included in the qualified medium information; and
Attempting to transmit the data using the first communication medium having the lowest PER or BER among communication media included in the eligible medium information;
The second communication medium is a communication medium having the lowest PER or BER next to the first communication medium,
How to choose a communication medium. According to claim 10,
Further comprising updating a medium selection rule in which a condition for the at least one parameter is defined when transmission of the data using all communication media included in the eligible medium information fails.
How to choose a communication medium.

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