Seismic or electromagnetic (EM) surveying can be performed for identifying and characterizing subterranean elements, such as hydrocarbon reservoirs, fresh water aquifers, gas injection reservoirs, and so forth. With seismic surveying, one or more seismic sources are placed in various locations above a land surface or sea floor, with the seismic sources activated to generate seismic waves directed into the subterranean structure.
The seismic waves generated by a seismic source travel into the subterranean structure, with a portion of the seismic waves reflected back to the surface for receipt by seismic sensors (e.g. geophones, hydrophones, accelerometers, etc.). These seismic sensors produce signals that represent detected seismic waves. Signals from the seismic sensors are processed to yield information about the content and characteristic of the subterranean structure.
EM surveying involves deployment of one or more EM sources that produce EM waves that are propagated into the subterranean structure. EM signals are affected by elements in the subterranean structure, and the affected EM signals are detected by EM sensors, which are then processed to yield information about the content and characteristic of the subterranean structure.
In a subterranean survey system, data acquired by survey sensors is transported to a central recording station (e.g., recording truck) via a communications network. Typically, this communications network includes various routers connected to corresponding networks to transport data of survey sensors.
An issue associated with a subterranean survey system is that damage to one or more components in the subterranean survey system can cause some part of the subterranean survey system to fail. For example, a cable may break, a router may go down, and so forth. Failure in communications of any part of the subterranean survey system would mean that data from survey sensors in the failed part would not be received by the central recording station, and therefore, cannot be analyzed. This can lead to inaccurate analysis of the data acquired by the subterranean survey system, which can lead to inaccurate conclusions reached regarding the content of a subterranean structure.