Building underwater ad-hoc networks and sensor networks for large scale real-time aquatic applications

Large-scale underwater ad-hoc networks (UANET) and underwater sensor networks (UWSN) are novel networking paradigms to explore the uninhabited oceans. However, the characteristics of these new networks, such as huge propagation delay, floating node mobility, and limited acoustic link capacity, are significantly different from ground-based mobile ad-hoc networks (MANET) and wireless sensor networks (WSN). In this paper we adopt a top-down approach to explore the new research subject. We at first show a new practical application scenario that cannot be addressed by existing technology and hence demands the advent of the UANET and UWSN. Then along the layered protocol stack, we go down from the top application layer to the bottom physical layer. At each layer we show a set of new design challenges. We conclude that UANET and UWSN are challenges that must be answered by inter-disciplinary efforts of acoustic communication, signal processing and mobile acoustic network protocol design.