Link and stability-aware adaptive cooperative routing with restricted packets transmission and void-avoidance for underwater acoustic wireless sensor networks

Abstract In underwater acoustic wireless sensor networks (UAWSNs), the conventional routing protocols continuously transmit data packets containing the same information when a source node detects an event of interest. This approach, however, leads to high energy consumption, high interference and challenges the stability of the network due to heavy data load on the nodes close to water surface. To overcome these challenges, this article proposes two routing protocols for UAWSNs. They are, SRRPV: stability-aware routing with restricted packets transmission and void-avoidance and LS-ACRPV: link and stability-aware adaptive cooperative routing with restricted packets transmission and void-avoidance. In SRRPV, a source node detects the event of interest, generates and routes packets. Subsequent packets routing is performed only when a change in intensity of the event is detected. Due to restricted packets transmission, three-hop connected paths with suitable neighbors are chosen to overcome the existence of a void (non-availability of a suitable forwarder) and, therefore, control packets loss. Moreover, the defined packet holding time ensures that nodes with the highest available energy transfer the most packets by holding the packets for the shortest interval of time. This strategy, in combination with restricted packets transmission, achieves network stability. Since limited number of packets are routed, the LS-ACRPV protocol is designed that adds reliability to the SRRPV protocol by selecting a routing link with the highest probability of successfully delivering packets to the destination or using adaptive cooperative routing to combat severe link conditions. Unlike the conventional protocols, the proposed protocols do not require the geographical position coordinates of nodes, which is challenging in underwater environment as nodes change their positions with sea tides and currents. Extensive simulation results reveal promising performance of the proposed schemes in terms of energy expenditure, delay and network stability at the expense of low packets delivery due to restricted packets transmission.