An Energy Balanced and Lifetime Extended Routing Protocol for Underwater Sensor Networks

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Networking
• Wireless Sensor Networks

Background:

• Energy limitation is a critical challenge in designing routing protocols for underwater sensor networks (UWSNs).
• Prolonging network lifetime with limited battery power is essential for UWSN functionality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose an energy-balanced and efficient routing protocol, the energy balanced and lifetime extended routing protocol (EBLE), for UWSNs.
• To optimize data transmissions and balance traffic loads based on residual energy to extend network lifetime.

Main Methods:

• The EBLE protocol operates in two phases: candidate forwarding set selection and data transmission.
• Nodes broadcast position and residual energy information to update candidate forwarding nodes.
• A cost function, considering residual energy and path costs, is used to select optimal forwarding paths.

Main Results:

• EBLE balances traffic loads according to residual energy levels.
• EBLE optimizes data transmissions by selecting low-cost paths.
• Numerical simulations demonstrate EBLE's superior performance in network lifetime and energy efficiency compared to BTM, BEAR, and direct transmission protocols.

Conclusions:

• The proposed EBLE protocol effectively addresses energy limitations in UWSNs.
• EBLE significantly enhances network lifetime and energy efficiency through balanced load distribution and optimized path selection.
• EBLE offers a promising solution for energy-constrained underwater sensor network applications.