Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks (MANETS) are multi hop wireless networks, where a packet hops through a number of intermediate nodes within coverage range of each other to reach the intended destination. The novel application of MANET routing protocols in the marine environment using available technology is one of the contributions of this work. The high cost of other available technologies which require direct connection to IP networks make our approach an attractive proposition for small craft. In this paper we investigate the effect of different maritime traffic patterns on the performance of three different MANET routing protocols which are Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV), Ad hoc On-Demand Multi Path Distance Vector (AOMDV) and Destination-Sequenced Distance Vector (DSDV). The traffic patterns are represented by different node densities and mobility behaviours which are likely to be found in the marine environment. Performance evaluation of the MANET protocols is compared in terms of packet delivery ratio.

Abstract-Data compression is known today as one of the most important enabling technologies that form the foundation of the majority of data applications and networks as we know them, including wireless sensor networks and the popular world wide net (internet). Marine data networks are gaining increasing interest in the research community due to the increasing request for data services over the sea. There are a very narrow range of available solutions because of the absence of infrastructure over such vast water surfaces. We have previously proposed applying MANET networks in the marine environment using VHF technology available on the majority of ships and vessels in order to gather different sensor data such as sea depth, temperature, wind speed and direction, etc. and send it to a central server to produce a public information map. We also discusses the gains and drawbacks of our proposal including the problem of low rate data transmission offered by VHF radio limited to 9.6 Kbps. In this paper we investigate the application of appropriate data quantization and compression techniques to the marine sensor data collected in order to reduce the burden on the channel links and achieve better transmission efficiency.