Chinese team sends sound data 600km underwater with no errors
25 May 2025

In a major breakthrough, a team of Chinese researchers has managed to send acoustic data underwater over a distance of 600km, without any errors.

The feat, detailed in a recent study published in Acta Acustica, China's leading acoustic journal, could change the way we do long-range messaging under the sea.

The implications are huge for both civilian and military purposes.

Underwater communication: A challenging endeavor
Communication hurdles

Despite whales communicating over long distances and a 2010 US Navy experiment showing communication across 550km, getting error-free transmission at such distances has been a major challenge.

For some users, especially in the military, even the slightest data corruption is unacceptable.

This is critical for tasks like activating dormant underwater drones or coordinating attack plans.

Overcoming obstacles in underwater communication
Challenges

The team encountered several formidable challenges in their pursuit of error-free transmission.

Seawater scatters sound into multiple echoes, Doppler shifts distort signals from moving platforms, and ambient noise can overpower faint sounds.

Even a sound as loud as a rocket launch can be reduced to the soft sound of a mosquito's hum over distances of several hundred kilometers.

Innovative system for underwater communication developed
Breakthrough

Led by Northwestern Polytechnical University's He Chengbing, the research team developed an innovative self-tuning system.

This system can map signal clusters in noisy environments without any prior knowledge of seabed topography. This is a crucial advantage for naval applications.

The team's groundbreaking work has opened up new possibilities for long-range underwater communication, marking a significant step forward in this field.