Underwater Networks for Ocean Monitoring: A New Challenge for Topology Control and Opportunistic Routing

Abstract

Underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) have been proposed for ocean monitoring. In comparison with ocean monitoring technologies currently in use, UWSNs have the potential to revolutionize ocean monitoring applications by enabling (quasi) real-time data acquisition. However, the use of the acoustic channel as well as the characteristics of the aquatic environment present challenges in design of efficient networking protocols for underwater sensor networks. Due to the particular characteristics of UWSNs, well-established principles and designed networking protocols for terrestrial wireless sensor networks cannot be directly applied in underwater sensor networks. In this chapter, we discuss the peculiar characteristics of UWSNs, and how knowledge acquired over decades of research in terrestrial wireless sensor networks is impractical in underwater sensor networks. Moreover, we discuss intrinsic research challenges and provide some guidelines for the future design of topology control algorithms and opportunistic routing protocols for UWSNs, two main methodologies that can improve the performance of UWSN applications. In addition, we provide some future research directions toward enabling large-scale deployments of UWSNs for monitoring large areas of the ocean.