Iridium Provides Data Links for Underwater Monitoring Systems Being Deployed by Fastwave for Chevron Offshore Gas Project In Australia

November 11, 2009  

Fastwave Communications has received a contract from Chevron Australia Pty Ltd to supply a water quality monitoring system for the Gorgon offshore gas project based on Iridium satellite data links provided by Iridium Communications Inc. 

The system will provide monitoring of turbidity levels arising from dredging and spoil operations in waters near the gas processing plant location on Barrow Island. 

The Fastwave system consists of underwater instrumentation modules positioned on the sea floor around the dredging and spoil disposal sites. Each subsea module contains turbidity sensors, data loggers, an Iridium short-burst data (SBD) modem and rechargeable battery packs. They are connected to small moored buoys which relay the data packets through the Iridium satellites to an environmental monitoring system onshore. 

“We designed our underwater monitoring systems to take advantage of Iridium’s global coverage, high network quality and low-latency, two-way SBD links, providing a robust solution capable of working reliably under extreme environmental conditions,” said Nick Daws, Director, Fastwave. 

Protection of the marine environment is a key priority for the Gorgon project and this will include a program of water quality monitoring using the Fastwave system. The system has all electronics and instrumentation packages in waterproof, hardened subsea capsules rather than in surface data buoys, providing extra protection from the cyclones that prevail in the region. The modules are designed to function at depths up to 50 meters with endurance of at least four months between battery recharges. 

“Iridium’s fast-growing machine-to-machine (M2M) data business is being driven largely by the innovative and creative solutions being developed by our Value-Added Partners such as Fastwave,” said Patrick Shay, vice president of Iridium’s data division. “Iridium offers a unique value proposition for remote M2M asset monitoring and tracking, providing reliable, low-latency data communications anywhere in the world, on land, in the air, on the sea and even under the sea.”