MIT News  September 6, 2023 Researchers at MIT have designed, evaluated, and implemented Van Atta Acoustic Backscatter (VAB), a technology that enables long-range, ultra-low-power networking in underwater environments. VAB is scalable underwater backscatter architecture that bridges recent advances in RF backscatter (Van Atta architectures) with ultra-low-power underwater acoustic networks. Their design introduces multiple innovations across the networking stack to overcome unique challenges that arise from the electro-mechanical properties of underwater backscatter and the challenging nature of low-power underwater acoustic channels. They implemented and evaluated their design in over 1,500 real-world experimental trials in a river and the ocean. In stationary […]