Imperfect communication channel effect on target tracking based on underwater wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) can provide a promising solution to underwater target tracking. However, due to the limited energy and bandwidth resources of UWSNs, only a small part of nodes are allowed to track underwater target at each time step. As far as we know, almost all the existing node selection schemes assume the communication channel between a node and the fusion center is perfect. However, such assumption is hard to satisfy due to the complex underwater environment. Based on the above consideration, this paper study the effect of the imperfect channel on target tracking based on UWSNs. To select the best nodes to track the underwater target, the Posterior Cramer-Rao Lower Bound (PCRLB) considering the imperfect channel is derived. Then a new target tracking scheme considering the imperfect channel is also designed. Finally, a sea experiment is conducted and collected data can verify the validity of our algorithm.