A modular data link layer for underwater networks

A re-usable software architecture suitable for underwater acoustic networking research has been designed and an initial version developed and demonstrated. The core of the software is a modular data link-layer that includes medium access control (MAC) and methods for discovery, plus an interface to hardware-specific device drivers that connect to specific acoustic modems. The goal is to provide this common framework to the community as open-source, so that it can be used to speed up development and testing of new ad-hoc networks. The architecture can be described in several interfaces and adapters. Three interfaces represent portions of the data link layer (DLL) , logical link control (LLC), and MAC plus physical-layer control. The adapters include one for the operating system, a link protocol interface, and a protocol adapter. All of these interfaces and adapters are described, along with a reference implementation that includes the WHOI Micro-Modem.