A Survey of Architectures and Localization Techniques for Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

Abstract

The widespread adoption of the Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) in various applications in the terrestrial environment and the rapid advancement of the WSN technology have motivated the development of Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks (UASNs). UASNs and terrestrial WSNs have several common properties while there are several challenges particular to UASNs that are mostly due to acoustic communications, and inherent mobility. These challenges call for novel architectures and protocols to ensure successful operation of the UASN. Localization is one of the fundamental tasks for UASNs which is required for data tagging, node tracking, target detection, and it can be used for improving the performance of medium access and network protocols. Recently, various UASN architectures and a large number of localization techniques have been proposed. In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey of these architectures and localization methods. To familiarize the reader with the UASNs and localization concepts, we start our paper by providing background information on localization, state-of-theart oceanographic systems, and the challenges of underwater communications. We then present our detailed survey, followed by a discussion on the performance of the localization techniques and open research issues.

A new MAC protocol of UASN (RABIC-MAC) based on high efficiency, concurrent and bidirection

“…Therefore, it is necessary to put forward new MAC protocols for UWAN. Current underwater MAC protocols mainly base on the fixed allocation mechanism and handshake mechanism [1,2]. Compared with the fixed allocation mechanism, the handshake mechanism has many advantages such as alleviating node-hidden problems, carrying much information and reducing the collision between small controlling packets.…”

Taxonomy of Fundamental Concepts of Localization in Cyber-Physical and Sensor Networks

“…The amount of works related to localization is so tremendous such that it becomes challenging to a (novice) researcher to have a global view of the different approaches that have been proposed. There has been some surveys [2,10,22,27,28,30,32,51,56,76] covering the localization problem but each of them tackles it for a different perspective. One may ask: yet, another survey on localization?…”

“…Our survey differs from others in several fronts. First, unlike some topic-oriented surveys, such as [22,28,30,32,76], this paper presents a comprehensive and generic overview of localization techniques in CPS. Indeed, the authors in [30,76] focused on range-free localization techniques, whereas the authors in [28] focused on TOA-based localization techniques.…”

“…Indeed, the authors in [30,76] focused on range-free localization techniques, whereas the authors in [28] focused on TOA-based localization techniques. In [22], the authors were interested in localization techniques for underwater acoustic networks, and [32] addressed map-based localization with a particular interest on fingerprinting methods namely deterministic, probabilistic and filtering approaches. On the other hand, this survey paper contributes to the state-of-the-art as compared to other generic and thorough surveys, such as [2,10,27,51,56,82], in the sense that it provides a comprehensive taxonomy of localization techniques and discusses in details the fundamental concepts of each techniques as well as its features and application contexts.…”

Echoes from the deep : communication scheduling, localization and time-synchronization in underwater acoustic sensor networks

“…Figure 2.4 gives an overview of localization techniques used in UASNs. A more extensive overview of localization techniques is given in [21]. Dead-reckoning, calculating a position relative to a previously calculated position, using inertial naviation is commonly used in UASNs for tracking AUVs and remains an active field of research.…”