Energy efficient clustering protocols for maximizing network lifetime in underwater acoustic wireless sensor networks

Abstract

newlineOne of the major type of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) that possess tremendous applications which is very useful for the mankind is, Underwater Wireless Sensor Network (UWSN). There are three various communications namely Radio Frequency (RF), acoustic and optical communications that exhibited in underwater environment and among them acoustic Communication is opted for its distinguished characteristics. Data gathering and routing are the two main processes undergone by UWSN. Therefore, it is very essential to select the best routing strategies and protocols. Localization-Free Interference and Energy Hole Minimization (LF-IEHM) Routing Protocol reduces the interference through a distinctive packet holding time concept and avoids the void hole problem by using variable transmission range. Even though LF-IEHM turns out with better performance, the lifetime of the network is destitute and this will not work for non-time critical applications. In order to improvise the network lifetime, certain investigations and assumptions are made to render both better performance and high network lifetime. The LF-IEHM protocol has high end-to-end delay since the nodes die in a rapid manner. To overcome this, a new routing protocol, Mitigation of end-to-end delay in LF-IEHM (M-LFIEHM) is introduced which considers residual energy as one of the parameter for the selection of best forwarder node as the low energy nodes will not be considered for data forwarding to avoid frequent death of nodes.