ACAR: an ant colony algorithm‐based routing protocol for underwater acoustic sensor network

Abstract

Research on underwater acoustic sensor networks has become a compelling field in recent years since resources on land are being depleted. Therefore, robust and efficient routing protocols are needed to ensure the reliability of message gathering and transmitting in underwater sensor networks. In the process of biological foraging in nature, creatures such as insects can find paths while adapting to dynamic environmental conditions through group cooperation, which provides a new perspective for research on routing protocols. In this study, the authors proposed an ant colony algorithm-based routing protocol (ACAR). In ACAR, the pheromone with a novel physical meaning and concentration changing mechanism is utilised to guide ants (path establishing packets) to the sink node. In addition, node depth information is used to decrease redundancy in the underwater environment. The routing process can be summarised in three parts: pheromone list setup, routing decision and damaged path repair. Simulation results, carried out on an underwater simulator based on NS-2, showed that ACAR outperforms other schemes with regards to network lifetime with a relatively better delivery ratio and latency in the proposed network scenarios.