Water ping: ICMP for the internet of underwater things

Abstract

High latency, low transmission rate and the presence of limited computational devices are characteristics present in scenarios of underwater communications. Despite the existence of concrete works on underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs), there is a gap in the interoperability of these networks and the traditional Internet networks. Indeed, communication solutions, routing algorithms and even data acquisition and analysis solutions are specifically designed to a given context or technology. In this work, we propose to turn this scenario into a ubiquitous scenario, similar to the Internet of Things, creating the Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT). More precisely, we present the Water Ping, a suppression proposal for ICMP and ICMPv6 protocol messages which will serve as a building block of the IoUT. The protocol we propose allows underwater devices to send/receive ping messages, which is one of the most widely know Internet application. Our results evidence that –now– underwater network devices can now be remotely effectively monitored through the Internet. Moreover, the suppression mechanism we propose can significantly reduce message sizes, which in turn lower the energy consumption by almost 94%.