Underwater spray and wait routing technique for mobile ad-hoc networks

Abstract

The underwater mobile ad-hoc networks comprise sensor nodes that are source nodes for gathering underwater-related data. Relay nodes are the mobile nodes for collecting data from sensor nodes and achieving intermittent connectivity among source and destination nodes. Developing an efficient routing protocol for underwater communication is a challenging issue due to limitations of the underwater environment. Underwater mobile ad-hoc networks are intermittent networks where end-to-end path does not exist from source to destination. To overcome these problems a delay and disruption tolerant network (DTN) is a good solution. In the current paper, we consider the Spray and Wait (SaW) routing technique. In SaW, source and relay nodes represents the moving nodes, and they try to send data to destination nodes. Based on this, we propose the replica based underwater SaW (USaW) routing for underwater mobile ad-hoc networks. In USaW, source nodes are fixed to the bottom of the surface. Underwater sensor nodes replicate sensor data and provide maximum copies of data to the relay nodes that they encounter. In generally, relay nodes have high capability of transmitting data as compared to sensor nodes in an underwater environment. We analyze the performance of USaW with respect to delivery ratio, network throughput, energy consumption, end-to-end delay, and packet drop rate comparing with existing SaW and prophet routing protocols.