A Centralized Control-Based Clustering Scheme for Energy Efficiency in Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

Abstract

Underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs) are among the most critical tools for underwater environment sensing and information acquisition. Since the complexity of the underwater environment renders battery replenishment and replacement more difficult and UASNs are mainly powered by batteries built into the underwater acoustic sensor nodes, the optimization of node energy consumption is particularly important for extending the network lifetime. Recently, energy consumption optimization solutions for UASNs have mainly focused on node clustering and multihop transmission. However, most schemes are implemented using distributed algorithms; in these types of approaches, decision information usually comes from only a subset of nodes, and it is difficult to make the most globally beneficial decision. Therefore, in this paper, the idea of centralized control is applied for the optimization of network energy consumption from a global perspective. Specifically, a centralized control-based clustering scheme (CCCS) for UASNs is proposed. In this scheme, a node density-based adaptive clustering approach is adopted, intracluster controllers are established within clusters, and the choices of both relay nodes and relay clusters are optimized to achieve energy balancing and route optimization. The performance achieved in simulations shows that compared to similar methods, CCCS is able to balance the node energy consumption and effectively increase the lifetime of a UASN.