A Feasibility Analysis of an Application-Based Partial Initialization (API) Protocol for Underwater Wireless Acoustic Sensor Networks

Abstract

Initialization methods for underwater wireless acoustic sensor networks (UWASNs) have been proposed as a subset of other network protocols under the simple assumption that all the nodes in the network can be initialized at once. However, it is generally time- and energy-intensive to initialize all nodes in a UWASN due to unstable underwater channel conditions. To improve network efficiency, we propose the Application-based Partial Initialization (API) protocol, which initializes only the same number of nodes as the number of activated nodes required to run a specific application. Reducing the number of active nodes is also particularly advantageous underwater since the replacement of batteries is costly. To the best of our knowledge, the API is the first approach that initializes nodes partially according to applications. Thus, we investigate the feasibility of the API for a UWASN by analyzing its performance via simulations. From the results, it is shown that the API provides similar data statistics compared with the conventional full initialization that initializes all nodes. Moreover, the API outperforms the full initialization in terms of the initialization time and message overhead performances.

Two-Phase Robust Target Localization in Ocean Sensor Networks Using Received Signal Strength Measurements

“…It is well known that, on account of the dynamics and complicated communication channels in the ocean environment, underwater localization is more complicated and challenging than ground positioning [ 7 ]. Different from terrestrial radio-frequency wireless communication, the use of acoustic signal seems to be a better way in OSNs [ 8 ]. Unfortunately, it is difficult to estimate a target with the acoustic signal due to various adverse factors, including the dynamics of the environment, multipath and absorption loss of the signal, and noise interference [ 7 , 9 , 10 ].…”