USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Christopher Lawson Fletcher

William H Marn

Jack R Olson

James Gabriel Buescher

Lonnie Allen Hamme

J Mark Stevenson

Alan Fronk

Vincent K McDonald

Susan G Briest

James Ben Penney

Robert Kevin Creber

An underwater wireless network can include plurality of nodes, each node having a cylindrical housing, a repeater, a transducer and a buoy. The housing defines a void and encloses the repeater. The transducer can be tethered to the housing and a buoy can be tethered to said transducer. Each node also includes at least two hemi-cylindrical flukes that can be pivotably attached to the housing. The housing can further be formed with at least two flood ports, and corresponding plugs are inserted into a respective fill port. Lanyards interconnect each flukes with a respective plug. During transport, the flukes can surround the transducer and the void is empty, which renders the node neutrally buoyant for ease of transport. For deployment, the flukes are pivoted away from each other to tighten the lanyards, which pull the plugs out of the flood ports, to further flood the void and deploy the node.

Underwater network having buoyancy compensation and anchoring systems

The invention provides an automatic gain control system that is implemented by digital hardware. The digital hardware determines the range of a set of digital data values, and then examines each digital data value in a sequence. An index counter increments a sample count index i each time a new digital data value is examined and determines the absolute value of the i digital data value. The digital hardware also counts both the number j of digital data values that exceed a high percentage value of the range, and the number k of digital data values that are less than a low percentage value of the range as the digital hardware runs through the sequence. If the digital hardware determines that a digital data value is greater than the high percentage value, the ratio j/i exceeds a first threshold value, and the gain level is not set to the lowest gain level, then the gain is decreased. If the digital hardware determines that a digital data value is less than the low percentage value, the ratio k/i exceeds a second threshold value, a predetermined interval of time has elapsed, and the gain level is not set to the highest gain level, then the gain is increased.

Automatic gain control

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San Diego, CA, United States of America

Christopher Lawson Fletcher