Recent advances in underwater acoustic communications & networking

The past three decades have seen a growing interest in underwater acoustic communications. Continued research over the years has resulted in improved performance and robustness as compared to the initial communication systems. Research has expanded from point-to-point communications to include underwater networks as well. A series of review papers provide an excellent history of the development of the field until the end of the last decade. In this paper, we aim to provide an overview of the key developments, both theoretical and applied, in the field in the past two decades. We also hope to provide an insight into some of the open problems and challenges facing researchers in this field in the near future.