AUV-Aided Localization for Underwater Sensor Networks

This paper explores energy-efficient ways of retrieving data from underwater sensor fields using autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Since AUVs are battery-powered and therefore energy-constrained, their energy consumption is a critical consideration in designing underwater wireless sensor networks. The energy consumed by an AUV depends on the hydrodynamic design, speed, on-board payload and its trajectory. In this paper, we optimise the trajectory taken by the AUV deployed from a floating ship to collect data from every cluster head in an underwater sensor network and return to the ship to offload the data. The trajectory optimisation algorithm models the trajectory selection as a stochastic shortest path problem and uses reinforcement learning to select the minimum cost path, taking into account that banked turns consume more energy than straight movement. We also investigate the impact of AUV speed on its energy consumption. The results show that our algorithm improves AUV energy consumption by up to 50% compared with the Nearest Neighbour algorithm for sparse deployments.

Ocean covers nearly 71% of our planet's surface, yet 95% of the ocean remains unexplored by human being, and wireless sensor networks are envisioned to perform monitoring tasks over the large portion of our world. However, deploying wireless sensor networks on the sea poses many challenges and for maritime surveillance security applications we may need to deploy sensors both on the sea surface and underwater for three-dimensional detection. In this paper, we propose a hybrid ocean sensor networks called Double-head maritime Sensor Networks (DSNs), which combine the advantages of wireless sensor networks and underwater acoustic sensor networks. By leveraging the unique characteristics of DSNs, we design a localization scheme LDSN which is consisted of two algorithms SML and FLA. We first use SML to localize moored anchor nodes as seed nodes. After the underwater sensor networks have been localized, the floating double-head nodes can figure out its instant position via FLA algorithm. We evaluate the scheme by simulations and the results show that the scheme can achieve a high localization accuracy.

Like wireless sensor networks, lifetime of sensors is the main constraint for performance of underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs). Most previous works on UASNs did not consider dynamics of networks, i.e., as time goes by, in practice, part of sensors may be malfunctioned, deplete their battery power, or get lost due to violent underwater environment changes. Therefore, this paper considers a UASN in ocean and proposes a sleep scheduling scheme in which sensor nodes and autonomous underwater vehicles in this network can dynamically choose to sleep or work to adapt to the environmental change. The concerned problem is to dynamically determine a sufficient number of active nodes in the UASN at different times, such that the targets required to be detected are covered. A special static scenario of the problem has been shown to be NP-complete. Hence, this paper proposes an improved multi-population harmony search algorithm to solve this dynamic problem. By simulation, the proposed algorithm shows high performance in terms of extending network lifetime, robustness, and computing time.

Underwater sensor networks (UWSN) are widely used in many applications, such as oceanic resource exploration, pollution monitoring, tsunami warnings and mine reconnaissance. In UWSNs, determining the location information of each sensor node is a critical issue, because many services are based on the localization results. In this paper, we introduce a novel underwater localization approach based on directional signals, which are transmitted by an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). Our method utilizes directional beacons (UDB) to replace traditional omni-directional localization which provides more accurate and efficient ways to locate the sensors themselves by simple calculations. The advantage of this novel scheme is that the communications between AUV and sensors are not necessary because the AUV broadcasts signals and sensors only need to passively listen to the signals. Since the energy consumption for transmissions in underwater environments is a nontrivial factor, our localization scheme not only supports accurate positioning, but also reduces energy consumption of sensors. We evaluate our scheme by simulations. The results show that our new approach is very precise in a strap area. At the same time, we minimize the number of beacons issued from the AUV.

Interest in underwater acoustic sensor networks (UW‐ASNs) has rapidly increased with the desire to control the large portion of the world covered by oceans. Energy efficiency is one of the major concerns in UW‐ASNs due to the limited energy budget of the underwater sensor nodes. In this paper, we tackle the problem of energy holes in UW‐ASNs while taking into consideration the unique characteristics of the underwater channel. We prove that we can evenly distribute the transmission load among sensor nodes provided that sensors adjust their communication range when they send or forward the periodically generated data. In particular, we propose a balanced routing strategy along with the associated deployment pattern that meticulously determines the load weight for each possible next hop that leads to fair energy consumption among all underwater sensors. Consequently, the energy holes problem is overcome, and hence, the network lifetime is improved. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that addresses the energy hole problem in UW‐ASNs. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Power efficiency is a big concern in the Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT). The power consumption of underwater acoustic communications is typically in the scale of watts, which may drain the battery of underwater devices quickly. Whereas, the power consumption of underwater magnetic induction (MI) wireless communications is in the scale of milliwatt. Therefore, this article devotes to combine the underwater MI and acoustic communications to form a power-efficient underwater hybrid wireless network. Specifically, we investigate the power-efficient autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) data collection schemes in an underwater MI and acoustic hybrid sensor network. We propose an alternating anchor nodes selection and flow routing (AANSFR) AUV data collection method, which alternately optimizes the AUV path planning and network data flow routing. The simulation results show that the proposed hybrid data collection scheme can significantly prolong the lifespan of underwater sensor networks.

A Survey on Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access with Energy Harvesting for Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

In underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs), efficient packet transmission is essential for monitoring new marine technologies. However, the uneven distribution of nodes and inappropriate selection of forwarding nodes lead to routing voids in adjacent nodes. Aiming at the problem, we propose a routing void handling protocol (RVHP) based on Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) for UASNs. RVHP effectively detects and avoids void nodes and trap nodes through a void avoidance mechanism, and then uses an AUV-assisted network repair mechanism to timely deal with failure routing in the communication area. AUV adopts a greedily path-finding strategy to visit void nodes, and realizes the void repair of UASNs. Simulation results show that RVHP can effectively improve the packet transmission rate and energy utilization rate.

The Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks (UWASN) consists of sensors that are deployed underwater for gathering information for the unexplored parts of oceans or rivers. UWASN consists of variable number of floating and anchored sensors, sink and vehicles that are deployed over an area to be explored. The characteristics of UWASN are mainly node mobility for floating, capacity for data collection and recording and autonomous vehicles which are battery operable. The communication is possible among underwater devices through optical waves, radio waves, electromagnetic and acoustics. Out of these, acoustics communication is best suited as it can carry digital information through underwater channel and can travel to longer distances. The communication can be classified in two parts: Single and multi hoping. But in underwater we use multi-hop communication for sending data from end nodes to sink nodes. The various challenges to UWASN are limited bandwidth, multipath fading, limited battery, limited data capacity and delay in propagation. Hence, in this paper we have focussed on various issues and challenges in underwater wireless sensor networks for acoustic communications.

The properties of underwater acoustic channel are quite different from those of terrestrial wireless sensor networks, which brings many challenges to design an efficient media access control (MAC) protocol for underwater acoustic sensor networks (UWASNs). In order to overcome the long propagation delay and the funneling effect of UWASNs, a MAC protocol, named path-oriented code assignment (POCA) CDMA MAC (POCA-CDMA-MAC) protocol, is proposed in the paper. In the proposed protocol, a round-robin method and the CDMA technology are used to make the sink receive packets from multiple neighbors at the same time. Unlike other CDMA-based protocols using the transmitter-oriented code assignment (TOCA) or the receiver-oriented code assignment (ROCA), the POCA is used in the CDMA technology. Since the number of the path is much less than the number of nodes, the length of the spreading code used in systems with POCA is greatly shorter than those of the spreading code used in systems with TOCA or ROCA. Simulation results show that compared to existing MAC protocols for UWASNs, the proposed MAC protocol achieves a higher throughput, and a lower end-to-end delay.

Underwater Sensor Networks (UWSNs) are significantly different from terrestrial sensor networks in the following aspects: low bandwidth, high latency, node mobility, high error probability, and 3-dimensional space. These new features bring many challenges to the network protocol design of UWSNs. The communication range of underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) is limited, and the nodes are equipped with limited power battery whose replacement is expensive due to underwater harsh environment. Moreover, the networks including small number of nodes have communication problems for long ranges. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of three classical location-based routing protocols (namely, VBF, HH-VBF, and VBVA) for underwater wireless sensor networks in terms of three critical performance metrics for dynamic network topology. Our comparison includes energy consumption, end-to-end delay, and packet delivery ratio.

Improving the energy efficiency of underwater acoustic sensor networks (UW-ASNs) is a crucial issue due to the reduced and nonrechargeable energy resource of the underwater sensor nodes. In this work, we address the energy sink hole problem in UW-ASNs while considering the unique and harsh characteristics of the underwater channel. Our goal is to determine the optimal deployment and routing settings that surmount the energy sink hole problem and hence maximize the network lifetime. We prove that sensors can evenly consume their initial battery power provided that first they adjust their transmission power when they transmit the route through traffic and second they are appropriately placed while deployed. Mainly, we propose a deployment scheme and the corresponding balanced routing strategy that lead to uniform energy consumption among all underwater sensors subject to a predefined reliability level at the sink. Specifically, we look for the optimal deployment settings especially in terms of nodes’ separation distances that help achieving uniform energy consumption in the network while satisfying the application requirement especially in terms of desired information reliability. Jointly, at the routing layer, we assume that each sensor is provided with the possibility of dynamically adjusting its transmission power up to a given number of levels N. To this goal, we mainly deal with two main cases: fixed and variable nodes separation distance. For the fixed case, we suppose that any two successive nodes in the network are equally spaced, and we strive for deriving the optimal distance as well as the optimal number of transmission power levels along with optimal load weight corresponding to every possible transmission power level for every sensor node. For the variable case, we deal with two subcases: first, we suppose that the distance separating successive nodes follows an arithmetic progression, and second, we assume that the distance separating successive nodes is following a geometric sequence. Note that for both cases, namely, fixed and variable, we succeed to determine the optimal distances separating successive nodes and the optimal number N of transmission power levels along with the corresponding optimal load weight that overcome the energy holes problem, and hence the network lifespan is maximized while respecting the desired reliability level.

Attack Simulation Model and Channel Statistics in Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

Water covers more than 70 % of the entire planet, contains much of its natural resources. With the increasing use of underwater sensors for the exploitation and monitoring of vast underwater resources, underwater wireless sensor network (UWSN), mostly based on acoustic transmission technologies, have been developing steadily in terms of operation range and data throughput. In an energy-constrained underwater system environment it is very important to find ways to improve the life expectancy of the sensors. Compared to the sensors of a terrestrial Ad Hoc Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), underwater sensors cannot use solar energy to recharge the batteries, and it is difficult to replace the batteries in the sensors. This paper reviews the research progress made to date in the area of energy consumption in underwater sensor networks (UWSN) and concentrates on developing routing algorithms that support energy efficiency. These algorithms are designed to carry out data communication while prolonging the operation time of WSNs.

Underwater sensor network nodes typically detect and communicate through the propagation of acoustic waves. To localize an unknown noise-source with an underwater sensor network, one can combine bearing estimates from various sensors while taking into account their respective position. As the battery life of each underwater sensor dictates the overall network endurance, each sensor must make sense of the various propagated signals and derive a likely bearing estimate to pass to neighbouring nodes while consuming as little power as possible. Most publications presenting distributed noise-source localization approaches performed by underwater sensor networks are inadequate in that their assumptions do not usually apply to an underwater setting and only use simulated scenarios. Unlike these publications, the proposed distributed noise-source localization scheme is tailored to and tested with real underwater acoustic detections. In particular, we present simple computational schemes for the sake of extending the operational life of the overall network. Those schemes monitor and estimate the main bearing characteristics while simplifying their representation. In general, the proposed techniques outperform the traditional approach of selecting bearings based on an intensity-only threshold.