VoI Based Information Collection for AUV Assisted Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

This paper considers value based information collection for underwater acoustic sensor networks (UWASNs). In the considered system, the sensor nodes collect, store and update monitoring information with an initial value related to associated events. The value of information (VoI), however, decays with time. An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is dispatched to retrieve data from the sensor nodes through acoustic communication. Our objective is to find the optimal traversal path for the AUV to maximize the VoI of the whole network. To achieve this goal, we first establish a realistic model for characterizing the behaviors of AUV and sensor nodes as well as the challenging environment, based on which the expression of the total VoI is derived. Then, we formulate the problem as a combinatorial optimization problem. We provide an optimal solution for this problem based on the branch and bound (BB) method, in which the lower bound (LB) and upper bound (UB) calculation strategies are specifically designed. A near-optimal heuristic algorithm based on the ant colony method is also adopted for further reducing computation complexity. Finally, simulations validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.