Improving routing performance of underwater wireless sensor networks

In this paper we present a 3D node deployment strategy to improve the routing performance of an Underwater Wireless Sensor Network (UWSN). This is done by carefully considering the unique characteristics of underwater acoustic communication as well as three-dimensional (3D) and dynamic nature of Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs). This strategy targets 3D UWSN and not only improves the routing protocol performance in terms of end to end delay and energy consumption but also provides reliability in data transmission and increases network lifetime. This strategy has been developed step by step from a single line of vertical communication to an effective 3D node deployment for UWSN. Several simulation experiments were carried out after adding different features to the final design, in order to observe their impact on the overall routing performance. Improving the routing performance by carefully analyzing the impact of 3D node deployment strategy and ensuring full sensing, transmission and back-up coverage in a highly unpredictable underwater environment, is a novel approach which can be embedded with other networking protocols to improve their performance.