An Improved Location-Aware Routing Protocol for Mobile Underwater Acoustic Networks

A significant problem in missions employing multiple autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) is the difficulty of communicating effectively. This challenging communication problem is best addressed in the realm of mobile, ad hoc networking (MANET). This paper describes work towards improving location-aware source routing (LASR), our modification of the dynamic source routing (DSR) protocol to add location awareness and link quality metrics. Specifically designed for use in underwater acoustic networks, LASR is explained and results of investigations into the sensitivity of LASR to medium-model error, tracking error and compression of communicated routing data are shown.