An Energy-Aware And Void-Avoidable Routing Protocol For Underwater Sensor Networks

The potential functions and applications in many new areas of underwater sensor networks(UWSNs)have promoted the development of underwater communication technology.Compared with wireless sensor networks(WSNs),UWSNs have the characteristics of higher energy consumption,lower bandwidth and longer delay.Therefore,UWSNs face a great challenge in designing a routing protocol of more balanced distribution of energy,longer network lifetime and higher packet delivery rate(PDR)under complex underwater environment and limited resources.In this paper,an energy-aware and void-avoidable(EAVA)routing protocol for underwater sensor networks is proposed.EAVA routing protocol includes layering phase and data aggregation phase.During the layering phase,concentric sphere shells are builded around sink nodes,and sensor nodes are distributed on different sphere shells.The phase balances the network load of nodes closed to surface of water of traditional network model to symmetrical regions centered around the sink nodes,and that aims to solve the problems of network load,end-to-end delay and hot zone.Multi-location sink nodes are used to perform layering phase concurrently,which improve the convergent rate of layering and ensure the validity and real-time of the topology.During the data aggregation phase,where the remaining energy of nodes and data transmission in the same layer are taken into account.It avoids cyclic transmission,flooding,and voids.The performance of EAVA routing protocol is verified and analyzed through NS-3simulation.Compared with existing routing protocols,quantified EAVA routing protocol can achieve lower end-to-end delay,higher PDR,higher layered rate and faster convergence.Meanwhile,the network lifetime is extended and energy distribution of the whole network is balanced.