Path Priority Routing Protocol for Underwater Wireless Sensor Network

Underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) are rapidly expanding, enabling advancements in marine technologies like seabed excavation, seismic monitoring, and environmental monitoring. UWSNs consist of small, battery-powered devices that communicate to forward data to a base station. Due to their seabed location, replacing batteries is challenging, making energy-efficient (E-E) communication crucial to extending the network’s lifespan. Many routing protocols have been developed to address the challenges of underwater communication, but balancing energy consumption while maintaining high-quality service (QoS) remains difficult, especially in large-scale UWSNs. This article introduces a path priority routing protocol (PPRP) for UWSNs, which adapts the mobile selective-path priority table (MSPT) routing protocol from terrestrial wireless sensor networks (WSNs) to underwater conditions. The PPRP prioritises paths to the base station using simple yet effective rules, reducing overall energy consumption while balancing QoS requirements. Comparative analysis with recent routing protocols show that the PPRP is a performance-efficient alternative routing protocol for UWSNs.