A Novel Routing Protocol Based on Elliptical Shaped Movement of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles in Data Gathering...

Area of Science:

• Underwater communication networks
• Robotics and autonomous systems

Background:

• High end-to-end delay is a major obstacle in underwater data collection.
• Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) offer a viable solution for data collection due to their mobility.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel routing algorithm, Elliptical Shaped Efficient Data Gathering (ESEDG), for AUV-based data collection.
• To address the challenge of end-to-end delay in underwater acoustic networks.

Main Methods:

• Designed an elliptical trajectory for AUV horizontal movement.
• Developed an association model between Member Nodes (MNs) and Gateway Nodes (GNs) with an end-to-end delay model.
• Simulated the ESEDG algorithm using NS-3 (version 3.35) and compared its performance against existing protocols.

Main Results:

• ESEDG demonstrated superior network throughput compared to DSG-DGA, AEEDCO, AEEDCO-A, ALP, SEDG, and AEDG.
• The proposed algorithm achieved lower end-to-end delay, reduced path loss, and optimized energy consumption.
• ESEDG also showed improvements in network lifetime.

Conclusions:

• ESEDG is an effective routing algorithm for enhancing data collection efficiency in underwater environments.
• The algorithm's elliptical trajectory and data gathering strategy significantly mitigate end-to-end delay.
• ESEDG presents a promising solution for improving the performance of underwater AUV networks.