Sensor Networks are being deployed at seven sites along the Great Barrier Reef from Heron and One Tree Islands in the South to Lizard Island in the North. As of mid 2009 the deployments at Heron and One Tree Islands have been competed, the deployment at Davies Reef is underway with all deployments scheduled to be completed by mid 2010. Data is available from the Heron and One Tree Deployments with some available for Davies Reef.
At each site a Base Station is first installed on an available platform such as a tower or other high point. The base station has a high-speed link back to the mainland and from there back to AIMS. For sites close to the coast 3G phone technologies are used, for sites further away a mix of microwave and satellite communications technologies are used. To create the on-reef wireless network a series of poles are installed, these use spread-spectrum radio to communicate with each other back to the base station and to any device within range. Typical range over water is around two kilometers from post to post and around one kilometer from post to a buoy. Finally buoys are moored around the reef near to coral and other areas of interest. The sensors are mounted on the buoys, a smart controller collects the data from the sensors and transmits it to the nearest network pole and then back to the base station and then back to AIMS. One of the poles also has a weather station to collect on-water meterological data. More infromation can be found by clicking here.
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