MISA: Magnetic Induction Scanned Array for Self-Contained Long-Range Communications

Nowadays many non-RF technologies (e.g., acoustic, magnetic, infrared, and ultraviolet) are identified as potential over-the-air communications alternatives. Efficient and effective operation of an unattended Non-RF Transceiver Alternative?Communicator (NRF-TAC) is needed in an environment of highly mobile and covert activity. Unlike conventional RF communications, Magnetic Induction (MI) communications exhibit highly reliable and constant channel conditions. Its transmission and reception can be accomplished via small-size wire coils with no cutoff frequency for low-frequency signals. As such, we propose an MI-Scanned Array (MISA) for designing small, energy-efficient, self-contained, long-range transceivers that can achieve up to 300 meters of point-to-point wireless communications range (much longer than infrared or ultraviolet-based communicators) and 800 hours without intervention, man-portable, field programable, and suitable for covert activities (better than acoustic), including remote intelligent sensing, and low probability of detection or interception (LPD/LPI) communications. Our MI-scanned array solutions are expected to (i) overcome the data communications limitations of the state-of-the-art MI technologies and (ii) be preferred over RF in environments where RF sensors cannot perform under commercial applications with limited energy (e.g., IoT, automotive transportation). A comprehensive analysis will be performed with a series of field application experiments for verification cross-reference matrix (VCRM) data to validate the rationale.