An Implementation of a Multi-Hop Underwater Wireless Sensor Network using Bowtie Antenna

Abstract

Water quality is a growing area of research, with more and more focus in the UK and globally on environmental issues and water quality. Current methods of monitoring environmental data such as air quality have continued to develop, spurred on by the growth of the Internet of Things. However, water quality monitoring mainly still depends on manual sample collection. This research presents the first implementation of a multi-hop underwater radio frequency sensor network using bowtie antennas combined with the 433 MHz frequency and a controlled flooding routing approach. The experimental work was conducted in the water reservoir and demonstrates the potential of multi-hop routing in underwater sensor networks to extend range to 19 meters as well as improvements on communication distances from 7 meters previously to 17 meters using radio frequency communications in an underwater environment. Simulated results show that the experimental platform used could enable the long-term deployment of an underwater wireless sensor network that used RF for periods of over a year with support for a 100 sensor node network broadcasting twice daily remaining active for 418 days or a 100 sensor node network broadcasting hourly remaining active for 406 days before any node deaths.