Effect of Undersea Parameters on Reliability of Underwater Acoustic Sensor Network in Shallow Water

Abstract

Underwater acoustic sensor networks have attained intensifying significance within the research communality, since they are enabling technology for wide range of applications. Typically, these networks establish connectivity (single or multi-hop) by a means of acoustic links. Acoustic communications pose several challenges due to transmission losses, fading, multipath, and effect of medium characteristics (depth, salinity, temperature and pH) on sound speed. The variation in sound speed affects the link formation, which may lead to link failures among sensor nodes. It seems to be crucial to incorporate a channel model that reflect on effect of medium and channel characteristics (absorption and transmission losses) in order to accomplish reliable communication among the links in an underwater network. In this work, an evaluation method for the two-terminal reliability of underwater sensor networks deployed in shallow water scenarios has been proposed. The methodology takes into account an acoustic channel model that distinguishes the effect of frequency and the aforementioned parameters on link formation. Two-terminal reliability analysis has been carried out by considering the effect of underwater media properties. The experimental outcomes specify that, reliability is reaches its maximum value when the temperature and salinity discrepancy with respect to depth are insignificant at lesser frequencies than that of upper frequencies.