Localization schemes for Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks - A Review

Abstract

Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks (UWASNs) connect the resources available in oceans to the rest of the world. The network has a huge amount of sensors which are sparsely deployed and are interconnected to collect information for the applications like target tracking, marine life monitoring, surveillance, and civilian applications. To get meaningful information from the data collected by this network, we have to know the spatial information of the sensor nodes. The procedure to determine the location of the sensors is called localization. Localization in UWASNs is a challenging task due to harsh environmental conditions. A large number of solution for localization in terrestrial networks but the solutions cannot be applied to UWASNs due to the different environmental conditions. Our major goal in this survey is to discuss various localization Schemes that are developed for UWASNs. The schemes are categorized into two types: Centralized and Distributed localization algorithms and they are further subdivided into three categories Stationary, Mobile and Hybrid localization schemes. Our contribution in this survey focused on various aspects of localization algorithms fundamental, discussion to the classification of localization schemes based on range-based and range-free techniques. We have discussed USP, DNRL, NLA, DV-HOP, LSHL, LSLS, UDB, LDB, SLMP, 3DUL, 3d-MASL, TSL, AAL, PL etc. localization schemes for UWASNs. These schemes are compared based on localization accuracy, communication cost, and localization success performance metrics. The highest 100% localization success achieved by 3D-MASL, UDB, and TSL schemes. LSLS, and DNRL schemes achieves highest localization accuracy. The LDB and UDB are the most energy efficient localization schemes as they need only two messages to localize one sensor node. The AAL scheme achieved the highest communication cost 9 messages per localized node. Finally, we have concluded our review with various open research issues and challenges related to the localization in UWASNs. We firmly believe that our survey will help new researchers to explore the localization methodology for UWASNs.