Assessment of a Magnetic Communication Using the Differential Magnetic Receiver in Air/Water Cross-Boundary and Conventional/Non-Conventional Media

This paper presents new potentials and promising solutions for mid-to-long-range magnetic communication by overcoming the short communication distance limitations using a differential magnetic induction (DMI) sensorbased receiver. In addition, testing and evaluation of magnetic communication links were conducted in practical channel environments, including air/water cross-boundary and conventional/non-conventional media. A magnetic communication system using a DMI sensor-based receiver, including triangularly arranged transmission coil antennas, was proposed. To evaluate the proposed DMI sensor-based receiver, wireless digital communication with quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) at a frequency of 20 kHz is adopted. The test results confirmed that the magnetic field can continuously penetrate across the boundaries of heterogeneous media such as air and water without signal loss, making magnetic communication possible in heterogeneous media environments, the air and underwater environment such as freshwater. Magnetic communication links were successfully established up to 40 m in the considered environments.