Linear TDA-MAC: Unsynchronized Scheduling in Linear Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

Underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs) are a key enabling technology for live monitoring of subsea assets. This often involves networks with line topologies, e.g., sensor nodes attached to oil and gas pipelines. In this letter, we propose linear transmit delay allocation MAC (LTDA-MAC) for efficient packet scheduling in linear UASNs without clock synchronization at the sensor nodes. It is achieved via online heuristic optimization that produces schedules tailored to a given deployment scenario. Simulations of a subsea pipeline monitoring use case show that LTDA-MAC significantly outperforms spatial-TDMA in networks with long propagation delays.