ProStream: Programmable Underwater IoT Network for Multimedia Streaming

Underwater Internet of Things (IoT) faces challenges, such as low data rate, high node mobility, high error probability, and propagation delay. Furthermore, underwater multimedia communication is more challenging, as it requires a high data rate and reliable delivery. The next-generation networking paradigm—software-defined network (SDN)—improves flexibility and virtualization through programmability. SDN increases resource utilization, simplifies management, and reduces operating costs. This article proposes ProStream, a reconfigurable SDN-based underwater multihop network for improved topology management, association control, and multimedia transmission. The proposed scheme considers a network with multiple access points (APs) and mobile relays and stations. The SDN controller places flow rules in the relays, and APs are placed as per the location of the nodes. Moreover, we present a programmable station for reducing Tx/Rx complexity in underwater networks. The stations or relays are triggered through programmability to notify their sleep time and current relays and AP for association and data transmission. We evaluate the proposed scheme first through simulation-based experimentation. We also develop a small-scale real testbed prototype of the proposed SDN. The performance results show significant improvement of performance in terms of latency, throughput, and packet delivery ratio.