Cross-Layer Energy Minimization for Underwater ALOHA Networks

Abstract

Abstract-Underwater networks suffer from energy efficiency challenges due to difficulties in recharging underwater nodes. In addition, underwater acoustic networks show unique transmission characteristics such as frequency-dependent attenuation, which causes the transmission power to significantly depend on the bandwidth and the distance. We here investigate the cross-layer energy minimization problem in underwater ALOHA networks considering the unique transmission properties of the underwater medium. We first analyze the separate optimization of the physical (PHY) and multiple access control (MAC) layers to minimize energy consumption. We analytically obtain the energy-optimum channel access rate for the ALOHA MAC layer, which minimizes the energy consumption per successfully transmitted bit. We then formulate a cross-layer optimization problem, which jointly optimizes PHY and MAC layers to minimize energy consumption. We show that such cross-layer optimization reduces the energy consumption per bit as much as 66% in comparison with separate optimization of both layers. Cross-layer optimization achieves this energy efficiency by assigning higher MAC-layer resources to the nodes that have a longer distance to the base station, i.e., which experience a less efficient PHY layer. Moreover, cross-layer optimization significantly increases the amount data transferred until first node failure since it results in a more homogeneous energy consumption distribution among the nodes.Index Terms-ALOHA, cross-layer design, multiple access control (MAC), underwater networks.

Internet of Underwater Things and Big Marine Data Analytics—A Comprehensive Survey

“…Given the natural difficulties involved in recharging those endpoint nodes, mid-layer nodes, and sink nodes, underwater networks should have an efficient energy management strategy. Many previous studies have investigated different techniques of minimizing the energy consumption in underwater networks [11], [58], [65], [66].…”

Cross-Layer Design Approaches in Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey

“…This is made possible by planning several factors such as make all the components of the system to operate at low duty cycle as possible, efficient use of transmission power while designing the protocols, design of energy-efficient routing protocols, minimizing the circuit's energy, energy-efficient node scheduling at MAC, proper power management, etc. The various CLD proposed in the existing works to increase the energy efficiency and hence the lifetime of the underwater network's [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] are reviewed in detail and the comparison is given in Table 1 with their findings.…”

“…With the objective of energy minimization, the authors in [36] first analyze the optimization of PHY and MAC layers separately. Then, they investigate the channel access rate for the ALOHA MAC layer which helps to minimize the energy consumption per successfully transmitted bit.…”

Advances in Software-Defined Technologies for Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks: A Survey

“…In addition, it also includes the design of pressure-resistant waterproof batteries [128]. In the acoustic communication science, it chiefly involves the communication techniques, such as MIMO [129][130][131], cooperative communication [132][133][134], and cross-layer optimization [135,136], while marine science pays more attention to the modeling of underwater channels.…”