An Energy-Efficient and Obstacle-Avoiding Routing Protocol for Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

Area of Science:

• Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks (UASNs)
• Wireless Sensor Networks
• Marine Robotics and Autonomous Systems

Background:

• Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks (UASNs) are crucial for aquatic exploration and data collection.
• Obstacles, such as marine animals, disrupt communication and reduce network lifetime in UASNs.
• Limited battery life in underwater sensor nodes necessitates energy-efficient routing protocols.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose an Energy-efficient and Obstacle-Avoiding Routing protocol (EOAR) for UASNs.
• To address communication disruptions caused by marine animals.
• To enhance network lifetime through energy balancing and efficient routing.

Main Methods:

• Calculating interference areas around marine animals using underwater acoustic channel models.
• Establishing candidate forwarding relay sets based on constraint conditions.
• Employing a fuzzy logic-based scheme to select optimal forwarding relays considering propagation delay, node angles, and residual energy.
• Implementing a priority-based forwarding method to prevent packet collisions and energy waste.

Main Results:

• The EOAR protocol demonstrated a significant increase in packet delivery ratio compared to HHVBF and VHGOR.
• EOAR achieved substantial reductions in energy consumption compared to existing protocols.
• Simulation results on the Aqua-sim platform validated the protocol's effectiveness.

Conclusions:

• The proposed EOAR protocol effectively overcomes communication obstacles posed by marine animals in UASNs.
• EOAR significantly improves network performance by enhancing packet delivery ratio and reducing energy consumption.
• The protocol offers a viable solution for extending the operational lifetime of underwater acoustic sensor networks.