A survey on Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks and applications

In this article a survey on the different technologies in the area of Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSN) will be presented. The characteristics of these networks are different from those found in the terrestrial ones, while their architecture is vulnerable to various issues such as large propagation delays, mobility of floating sensor nodes, limited link capacity and multiple messages receptions due to reflections on the sea ground and sea surface. This article will present an overview of the underlying technologies in UWSN and will focus in presenting the most important research approaches towards UWSNs' architecture, routing, MAC and localization protocols, energy consumption and security, while highlighting their most illustrative real-life applications.