An Efficient Routing Protocol Based on Stretched Holding Time Difference for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Underwater Wireless Sensors Networks (UWSNs) use acoustic waves as a communication medium because of the high attenuation to radio and optical waves underwater. However, acoustic signals lack propagation speed as compared to radio or optical waves. In addition, the UWSNs also pose various intrinsic challenges, i.e., frequent node mobility with water currents, high error rate, low bandwidth, long delays, and energy scarcity. Various UWSN routing protocols have been proposed to overcome the above-mentioned challenges. Vector-based routing protocols confine the communication within a virtual pipeline for the sake of directionality and define a fixed pipeline radius between the source node and the centerline station. Energy-Scaled and Expanded Vector-Based Forwarding (ESEVBF) protocol limits the number of duplicate packets by expanding the holding time according to the propagation delay, and thus reduces the energy consumption via the remaining energy of Potential Forwarding Nodes (PFNs) at the first hop. The holding time mechanism of ESEVBF is restricted only to the first-hop PFNs of the source node. The protocol fails when there is a void or energy hole at the second hop, affecting the reliability of the system. Our proposed protocol, Extended Energy-Scaled and Expanded Vector-Based Forwarding Protocol (EESEVBF), exploits the holding time mechanism to suppress duplicate packets. Moreover, the proposed protocol tackles the hidden terminal problem due to which a reasonable reduction in duplicate packets initiated by the reproducing nodes occurs. The holding time is calculated based on the following four parameters: (i) the distance from the boundary of the transmission area relative to the PFNs’ inverse energy at the 1st and 2nd hop, (ii) distance from the virtual pipeline, (iii) distance from the source to the PFN at the second hop, and (iv) distance from the first-hop PFN to its destination. Therefore, the proposed protocol stretches the holding time difference based on two hops, resulting in lower energy consumption, decreased end-to-end delay, and increased packet delivery ratio. The simulation results demonstrate that compared to ESEVBF, our proposed protocol EESEVBF experiences 20.2 % lesser delay, approximately 6.66 % more energy efficiency, and a further 11.26 % reduction in generating redundant packets.

An Efficient Routing Scheme Based on Node Density for Underwater Acoustic Sensors Networks

“…This indicates that the holding time estimation in ESEVBF does not have a fixed number, but rather, depending on the energy routing and balancing, while customizing the holding time accordingly. By extending the holding period to the second hop, Extended ESEVBF (EESEVBF) [21] improves ESEVBF while also decreasing packet losses and suppressing duplicate transmission. Also, another novel approached based on the block chain are proposed in [30] for enhancing the privacy and security of the data placed in the cloud.…”

“…When a node located at more depth, then it will drop the packet and other nodes located at smaller depth and inside the range of the forwarded node will ultimately start to forward the packet. Consider a node 𝑖𝑖 for packet 𝐷𝐷, the holding time Equation ( 6), derived from Stretching Holding time Paper [21] is:…”

Reliable Path Selection and Opportunistic Routing Protocol for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks

“…In [13], an Energy Balanced Vector Based Forwarding protocol is proposed, which focuses on energy balancing among the nodes to increase lifetime of the UWSNs, and avoid void zones in the network that can result in communication breakage between certain nodes and sinks. In [30], authors proposed an Efficient Routing Protocol Based on Stretched Holding Time Difference for UWSNs, which is basically the improved version of ESEVBF protocol. It extends the holding time mechanism of the first-hop forwarder to the second hop for finding the best satisfactory path.…”

Adaptive hop-by-hop cone vector-based forwarding protocol for underwater wireless sensor networks

“…However, the packet delivery rate (PDR) is not improved because of the suppression of more nodes due to the forwarding scheme. For this reason, they proposed another protocol to stretch the holding time difference 25 that is basically a more enhanced version of ESEVBF protocol. 24 In this protocol, the technique of holding time calculation is extended from the first to the second hop forwarder to determine the best path.…”