Abstract
Deploying a multi-hop underwater acoustic sensor network (UASN) in a large area brings about new challenges in reliable data transmissions and survivability of network due to the limited underwater communication range/bandwidth and the limited energy of underwater sensor nodes. In order to address those challenges and achieve the objectives of maximization of data delivery ratio and minimization of energy consumption of underwater sensor nodes, this paper proposes a new underwater routing scheme, namely AURP (AUV-aided underwater routing protocol), which uses not only heterogeneous acoustic communication channels but also controlled mobility of multiple autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). In AURP, the total data transmissions are minimized by using AUVs as relay nodes, which collect sensed data from gateway nodes and then forward to the sink. Moreover, controlled mobility of AUVs makes it possible to apply a short-range high data rate underwater channel for transmissions of a large amount of data. To the best to our knowledge, this work is the first attempt to employ multiple AUVs as relay nodes in a multi-hop UASN to improve the network performance in terms of data delivery ratio and energy consumption. Simulations, which are incorporated with a realistic underwater acoustic communication channel model, are carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme, and the results indicate that a high delivery ratio and low energy consumption can be achieved.
Highlights
Underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASN) can provide a cost-effective underwater monitoring solution by tackling problems of traditional ocean monitoring approaches which rely on off-line monitoring [1] or underwater infrastructures [2], where costly underwater optical cables are used for communications between sensors and base stations
Designing an underwater acoustic sensor network (UASN) brings about several new challenges due to the power limitations of underwater sensor (U-sensor) nodes and the unfavorable characteristics of the underwater acoustic channel such as limited bandwidth, multi-path effect, fading, large propagation delay, and high bit error rate [4] (As an example of limited underwater communications, only about 48 Kbps data rate can be achieved for 2 kilometer distance over 23 KHz bandwidth [6], while terrestrial microwave communications can achieve over 100 Mbps for a distance of several kilometers [7])
In order to address the problem of the low delivery ratio and to minimize energy consumption of U-sensors, we propose a novel underwater sensor network architecture and routing scheme, namely AURP (AUV-aided underwater routing protocol), that use heterogeneous acoustic communication channels and controlled mobility of multiple autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs)
Summary
Underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASN) can provide a cost-effective underwater monitoring solution by tackling problems of traditional ocean monitoring approaches which rely on off-line monitoring [1] or underwater infrastructures [2], where costly underwater optical cables are used for communications between sensors and base stations. Designing an UASN brings about several new challenges due to the power limitations of underwater sensor (U-sensor) nodes and the unfavorable characteristics of the underwater acoustic channel such as limited bandwidth, multi-path effect, fading, large propagation delay, and high bit error rate [4] (As an example of limited underwater communications, only about 48 Kbps data rate can be achieved for 2 kilometer distance over 23 KHz bandwidth [6], while terrestrial microwave communications can achieve over 100 Mbps for a distance of several kilometers [7]) These limitations of the underwater communication make it hard to design a high performance network [8], i.e., a low available data rate, high variation of propagation delay depending on the distance, and a high bit error rate result in low network performance in terms of throughput and delivery ratio [9]. In order to address the problem of the low delivery ratio and to minimize energy consumption of U-sensors, we propose a novel underwater sensor network architecture and routing scheme, namely AURP (AUV-aided underwater routing protocol), that use heterogeneous acoustic communication channels and controlled mobility of multiple autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs).
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