Infrastructure Diagram
System Characteristics
The NEPTUNE system will have the following characteristics to meet the scientific requirements:
Major Power Consumers
The major power consumers will include those instruments that require motion (autonomous underwater vehicles, pumps), heat transfer (freezers to preserve specimens, heaters for polymerase chain reactions used in DNA work, as well as sediment thermal conductivity studies), light (video), and electronics, with 2-20 kW required at a particular node and 100 kW overall for a 30-node scenario. Node locations and number of nodes in the process of being determined. (NEPTUNE Power System Design)
Major Bandwidth Consumers
The major bandwidth consumers are video and high-frequency acoustics; significant fractions of a gigabit per second are required at a node, with order 10 Gb/s required overall. (NEPTUNE Data Communications System)
Network Topology
A mesh network topology for the power and communications systems will meet the capacity requirements and will maximize reliability and flexibility. For power, this means using a "parallel" or constant voltage approach much like land power grids and unlike conventional submarine telecommunications systems. For communications, a standard data networking technology is chosen as the implementing approach. The goal is for NEPTUNE to appear as a seamless extension of the global Internet, connecting users anywhere on shore to the sensors on the seafloor.
Sensor Networks and Undersea Vehicles
Sensor networks attached to NEPTUNE should be ever evolving, and the architecture must support this. Remotely controlled undersea vehicles of all kinds will be essential components in installing and maintaining the systems and, more importantly, in providing essential platforms for the science.
